No-waste Crispy Vegetable Fritters with Poached Egg
I don’t know about you, but rarely a weekend goes by when I don’t have some sort of vegetable leftover over in the fridge, whether this is uncooked but seen better days, or the cooked leftovers from Sunday dinner. Fritters are one of the most quick and simple ways of boosting and transforming these veggies as you can also pack in a variety of textures and flavours using different herbs, spices, and cheese, making for an extremely nutritious and colourful dish. This recipe works with a whole variety of veg like courgette, beetroot, squash, aubergine, carrots, kale, spinach, cauliflower, and broccoli etc.
To serve: 8-10 fritters
Ingredients
Approx. 500g leftover vegetables of choice
50g plain flour (chickpea or rice flour work well if gluten-free)
1 garlic clove, crushed (or 1 tsp ground garlic granules)
handful fresh herbs, chopped (coriander, parsley, dill, mint, chives, thyme, oregano etc)
2-3 tsp spices (ground cumin, coriander, sumac, za’atar, turmeric, paprika etc)
2 tbsp cheese, crumbled or grated (eg feta, goats, parmesan, halloumi) OR 2 tbsp nutritional yeast if vegan
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 large egg OR 2 chia eggs if vegan
2 tbsp coconut oil or olive oil to fry
To serve:
poached egg
rocket
toasted seeds
squeeze lemon juice
extra virgin olive oil
Method
1. Start by preparing all the vegetables. Majority of the vegetables will need to be grated including beetroot, squash, sweet potato, carrot, cauliflower, broccoli, courgette, aubergine. Once grated, sprinkle with salt to remove excess water, mix and leave to drain for 15 minutes.
2. If using dark green leafy veg like spinach or kale, blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds, then immediately run under cold water. Drain fully then roughly chop.
3. Squeeze out any excess water from the veggies as you can (using either a muslin cloth or kitchen towel, then add all to a large mixing bowl.
4. In a separate bowl mix the flour, herbs, spices together then mix this through the vegetables followed by the cheese, whisked egg, salt and pepper.
5. If using a chia egg, mix 2 tbsp chia with 6 tbsp water and set aside for 10 minutes then add this instead of the egg.
6. Combine everything thoroughly and evenly using a spatula until it holds together when pinched. Add a little more flour if necessary.
7. Using your hands, divide the mixture into balls (roughly 8 – 10 depending on how large you want them).
8. Heat the oil in a large pan over medium high heat, then add 2-3 balls to the pan and press down with the back of a spatula to form a ‘fritter’. Leave enough space between each one.
9. Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side until golden, being careful not to burn. This can be different with every pan so start checking at 3 minutes.
10. Line a tray with kitchen towel then stack up the cooked fritters until ready to serve.
11. Serve topped with a poached egg, a sprinkle of toasted seeds and some rocket
