Fritter Your Vegetables | #eatmoreveggies
These addictive fritters are fun to eat, easy to make, and a great way to #eatmoreveggies. Learn how to make them with our video, then get creative with all the veggie fritter possibilities!
Our 2015 wish for you is that you eat a lot of veggies and experience your awesomest self. To turn this wish into reality, all this month we’ll be giving you ideas on how to #eatmoreveggies. Last week we kicked off the first idea of this series: noodle-fy your veggies.
This week’s idea: fritter your veggies!
According to the ever resourceful Wikipedia, “In the United States, fritters are small cakes made with a primary ingredient that is mixed with an egg and milk batter and either pan-fried or deep-fried; wheat flour, cornmeal, or a mix of the two may be used to bind the batter.”
The fritters I’m introducing to you today are a bit different.
Think less deep-fried funnel cake-ness, more crispy, cheesy mini-vegetable pancakes.
3 Reasons to Make These Fritters
1. They’ll allow you to eat a wide assortment of veggies
Some vegetables you can fritter-fy include:
- Beets | grated
- Broccoli | chopped
- Butternut squash | grated
- Carrots | grated
- Cauliflower | chopped
- Parsnips | grated
- Potatoes / Sweet potatoes | grated
- Turnips / Rutabagas / Daikon radish | grated
2. You could also eat them in a variety of ways
- Swap them for traditional breakfast blackjacks. For sweeter vegetables like butternut squash, carrots, parsnips, and sweet potatoes, you could still drizzle on the maple syrup!
- Enjoy them as a veggie burger patty between buns or even an English muffin. Stack 2 to 3 together for a more substantial meal.
- People seem to be a bit Greek Yogurt obsessed these days (rightly so). Add a dollop of yogurt on top of your fritters for a vegetarian post-workout treat or even a filling dinner.
3. They freeze well
Having a few (or a lot) of these at-the-ready in the freezer means you’re always just a few minutes from a healthy after school snack for your kids or quick and easy meal. Just pop them in a 300 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
How to Make Them
My basic formula for these fritters is:
- ~4 cups of grated or chopped vegetables +
- 3/4 cup of grated or crumbled cheese +
- ¼ to ½ cup flour (sub cornmeal for gluten-free needs) +
- 1 to 2 eggs +
- salt and pepper
For the cheese, there are lots of possibilities. Here are a few combos that would be delish:
- Cheddar / Jack / Mexican blend: broccoli, potatoes
- Feta cheese: broccoli, butternut squash, carrots
- Goat cheese: butternut squash, carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, turnips / rutabagas
- Mozzarella: broccoli, potatoes
- Swiss / gruyere: all the veggies!
Step #1: Prep Your Veggies
For an easy way to grate vegetables, check out our video below:
How to Shred Root Veggies in a Food Processor
In this video we show you just how easy it is to grate veggies in your food processor.
We recommend grating broccoli, butternut squash, carrots, parsnips, potatoes / sweet potatoes, and turnips / rutabagas / daikon radish for fritters.
After grating them, place them in a microwave-safe container, cover with a wet paper towel, and nuke for ~1 minute. This will cook them lightly and make the pan-frying process much faster.
If you’re working with broccoli or cauliflower, here’s how to chop them:
How to Chop Cauliflower
Cauliflower is such a tasty vegetable to cook. See how easy it is to prep here.
After chopping them, just like with the grated vegetables, place them in a microwave-safe container, cover with a wet paper towel, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Again, this will cook them lightly and make the pan-frying process much faster.
Step #2: Make Batter
If you’re using grated vegetables, just mix your microwaved grated veggies with the rest of the ingredients.
If you’re using broccoli or cauliflower, you can either run your knife through them a few more times to make the chopped pieces even finer or pulse everything together in a food processor to form your batter.
Your batter should be thick enough that you can easily manipulate it. If you think it’s too thick or dry, add more eggs. If it’s too wet, add more flour (or cornmeal) or even cheese.
Step #3: Pan-fry!
Once your batter is all made (you can also pre-make the batter and keep it tightly sealed in the fridge for up to 3 days), heat up a non-stick pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Add enough oil to lightly coat the pan.
When the oil is heated, spoon in your batter about ¼ cup (or 60ml) per fritter. Cook on each side for 2 to 3 minutes. Continue through your batches until all the batter is gone. You might need to wipe out your pan with a paper towel and add more oil in between batches.
Also, if you’re making a lot and want to keep them warm, I recommend warming your oven to 250F (or 121C) degrees. Place finished fritters on a cooling rack nested in a sheet pan to keep them from getting soggy.
Step #4: Enjoy!
Drizzle on the maple syrup, Greek yogurt, or even make a little aioli or flavored mayo.
To help our meal plan members follow along easily, we also created this video:
How to Make Broccoli Fritters
Watch this video to learn how to make tasty broccoli fritters. You can change them up by adding any veggies!
I hope this post has been enough to convince you to try some veggie fritters! It’s such an easy way to #eatmoreveggies, and I hope these cute little fritters make it into your 2015 meals!
If you’re a part of our meal plan service, we’re making broccoli fritters as part of this week’s menu. If you haven’t signed up for our meal plans yet, and you want your 2015 dinners to be healthy, full of veggies, and stress-free, we’d love for you to check out our meal plan service – you can taste test 3 meal plans for free!
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