Have you made your way to a farmer’s market so far this summer? If so, you’ve probably seen a surplus of beautiful bright green zucchini and golden yellow squash. Aside from a plump juicy tomato, squash and zucchini are my absolute favorite summer time vegetables. When I first got married and started becoming adventurous in the kitchen, I struggled with finding a way to prepare zucchini (other than making loaves of zucchini bread).
I knew I could always slice it and cook it with a little olive oil, or I could just stick to my Southern roots and put it in a casserole, but I got bored pretty quickly with preparing it those ways, and I really needed to try something new if I was going to continue to stay in love with this veggie. Last year my husband and I tried this recipe for the first time and I started falling in love with zucchini ALL over again!
Last week I was lucky enough to get my hands on some more zucchini, and I knew without hesitation that I’d be making a batch of these yummy golden fritters. I know most people would laugh at the concept of frying a vegetable. I totally get that frying takes basically every healthy benefit out of the food, but here in the South it’s just a way of life! Plus, they’re seriously delicious. Seriously, y’all. You gotta try it!
I washed the zucchini off and shredded it using a cheese grater. Zucchini have an extremely high water content, so it’s important to try to squeeze out all of the water that you can. For this recipe I used 2 zucchini, and it made about 2 cups worth when shredded.
I combined the remaining indredients (found below) with the zucchini and formed the zucchini mixture into thin patties. I fried them in a skillet for roughly 1 minutes, flipped them over halfway through cooking.
- 2 medium zucchini
- 1 cup crumbled feta cheese
- ¼ cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 2 eggs
- 1 Tbs parsley
- 1 Tbs dill
- ½ tsp minced garlic (or one clove- minced)
- 8 Tbs all purpose flour
- 1 Tbs baking powder
- Salt & Pepper (a few shakes of each)
- Vegetable Oil for frying
- Grate zucchini and place in a strainer
- Squeeze out as much of the liquid from zucchini as you can and set aside
- In a large bowl, beat eggs and cheese together
- Add in zucchini, dill and parsley and stir
- Add in flour, 2-3 shakes of salt and pepper and baking powder and stir
- Heat oil in a skillet on medium (I used about ½ cup, but it really depends on the size of your skillet)
- Take a small handful of mixture and pat it out in your palm as thin as you can without it falling apart
- Fry in skillet for roughly one minute,or until outside is golden brown. Be sure to flip to make sure each side is cooked
- Remove from skillet and let cool on drying rack or on paper towel
- Can be served with marinara sauce or ketchup
- Enjoy!
My husband and I really enjoyed eating the fritters with a little bit of ketchup, and we’ve also eaten it with marinara sauce. The key when making this recipe is to get the fritters pretty thin, because you want to make sure the insides get cooked all the way through. The first time we ever made them we made a few patties that were pretty thick, and unfortunately the outside cooked way faster than the inside and we were left with a gooey center. We definitely learned from that mistake!
Do you have another fun way to prepare summer zucchini or squash? I’m always looking for a new way to use these versitile veggies in a delicious dish to serve my family. Leave a comment below and share your recipes!
