thursday recipe: zucchini fritters + fruity salad

There's been a bit of a fritter frenzy around here. It all started with zucchini fritters, a few days later broccoli fritters and then last night after dinner Uncle Dave introduced River and Sol to a dessert indulgence of pineapple and banana fritters.

We are staying with our good friend Uncle Dave just near Byron Bay, David is vegetarian much to carnivore Sol's amazement, and I've been coming up with inventive ways to get Sol excited about vegetarian meals.

So far I've failed dismally (I don't think a cheese and avocado toasty on pumpkin and pepita bread counts as a vegetarian meal). River however is sold on vegetable fritters.

If you've never made fritters before they are very simple and lend themselves to an array of vegetables. I think the biggest selling point for kids who are not fans of vegetables is that they typically include cheese of some description. I am yet to meet a child who doesn't love cheese. That said, we try to go easy on dairy here because it doesn't seem to take much dairy and everyone is congested.

In this recipe I use labne cheese, which is made by straining yoghurt. I'm told it is easy to make but haven't gotten around to giving it a go yet, so I used locally made baraka labne.

As you can see in the photos Sol was helping me with the grating, his first time loose in the kitchen with a grater. I'd never thought of grating zucchini lengthways. Thankfully his knuckles remained intact. Even though it takes more time having kids help in the kitchen it is so important to get them involved in day to day cooking, not just licking the bowl when baking!

I served the patties with a fruity salad, I know adding apple and passionfruit to salad sounds weird but it worked!

I hope these fritters win some fans in your house.

Zucchini fritters

Ingredients

1/2 cup wholemeal spelt flour
1/2 cup labne
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 egg, whisked
4-5 small zucchini
Ghee or oil of choice for frying

To make

Grate zucchini and place in colander.
Squeeze excess liquid from grated zucchini and place in mixing bowl.
Add in remaining ingredients and mix until combined.
Heat oil in pan to medium high heat. Drop a pinch of mixture into pan to see if oil is hot enough.
Using a measure of approximately 2 tablespoons to form one fritter, place fritters into oil, flatten out a little with spatula and cook until golden on each side.

For the fruity salad I used mixed lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, green capsicum, beetroot, apple, passionfruit and chopped fresh parsley. I dressed it with lemon juice and olive oil.

If you want more zucchini fritter recipes go here. And for broccoli version go here. Enjoy!