Courgette Fritters with a Yogurt, Mint & Cumin Dip
Prep Time:25 mins, Cook Time: 10 mins, Total Time: 35 mins
June 9, 2014
I’ve been a very busy gal the last few days. Just back from a gloriously long child-free weekend at Food Blogger Connect in London meeting up with foodie friends, listening and learning with some of the industry’s finest and eating and drinking my way through a three day veritable feast. Oh it was tough. But more on the conference in a later blog.
To brighten up your Monday here’s a cheeky wee frittery number that’s currently going down a storm at Eat Your Veg HQ. Courgette & Feta Fritters flavoured with flat leaved parsley, fresh mint (you should see how much I’ve growing outside my front door!) and a hint of cumin. Made a little healthier than your average fritter using wholemeal flour and shallow fried in rapeseed oil. Rapeseed oil, incase you haven’t already jumped on the bandwagon, is low in saturated and high in mono-saturated fats and contains high levels of goodie omegas 3, 6 and 9. It also has a high burn point so’s perfect for frying or roasting and incidentally makes a mighty fine oven chip.
The fritters are delicious served with my Greek Yogurt, Mint & Cumin Dip though I really should confess I totally stole the idea from the master foodie that is my big brother Julian. He made it me a few weeks ago as a dip for, would you believe, strawberries. Admittedly cumin and strawberries does sound a little bonkers, and yes I was deeply skeptical, but it soooo does work. Go try. It naturally also works really well with savoury flavours such as these fritters, complementing them perfectly. Go try again!.
Fritters are a superb way of getting the fussy little folk to eat veggies they’re less keen on. In my experience mixed in a batter and shallow fried they’ll usually give them a pop and more often than not wolf a few down minus the fuss factor. Although my kids will happily eat plain steamed courgettes they were super happy to eat them in fritter form, particularly Jacques who’s more than a little partial to Feta. Make that any cheese these days.
My fritters and dip serve as an extremely last minute entry to the The Yogurt Council’s (www.loveyogurt.org) ‘Search for a Food Stylist’ competition, which runs until tonight on Instagram. I’m also linking them up to Vanesther’s The Spice Trail challenge which this month is all about Cumin.
Courgettes, Wholemeal Flour, Eggs, Rapeseed Oil, Greek Yogurt, Mint, Parsley
Great For:
Toddlers, Big Kids, Grown Ups, Starters or Appetisers, Nibbles or Snacks, Lunch, Light Dinner, Disguising Courgettes, Vegetarians
Notes:
Makes about 16 fritters
Special Equipment:
A frying pan
Courgette Fritters with a Yogurt, Mint & Cumin Dip
Ingredients Prep Time:25 mins, Cook Time: 10 mins, Total Time: 35 mins
For the Fritters:
3 courgettes, coarsely grated
4 spring onions, finely sliced
150g Feta cheese, crumbled
1 heaped tablespoon flat leaved parsley, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons fresh mint, roughly chopped
1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin
1 heaped teaspoon Dijon mustard
100g wholemeal flour
2 large eggs, free range, lightly beaten
salt and pepper
rapeseed or sunflower oil
For the Dip:
3 tablespoons Greek yogurt
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 heaped dessertspoon mint, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1) Coarsely grate the courgettes and place in a colander over a bowl. Leave to drain for 20 minutes under weights (I use tin cans or bottles). Give a few squeezes with your hands too, you really want to get as much out as you can. Retain the liquid for soup or stock making.
2) In another bowl mix together the finely sliced spring onions, crumbled Feta, parsley, mint, cumin, mustard, flour and eggs. Season with a pinch each of salt and pepper. Stir in the courgettes, you may need to get your hands in and squeeze the mixture together (it feels lush!).
3) Heat a fine layer of the oil in a frying pan on a medium heat. Dollop dessertspoonfuls of the mixture on the hot fat and press down lightly with the back of the spoon and shape into fairly thin round patties. Fry for about 2 minutes on each side until golden brown and crispy. Drain on kitchen paper and serve warm ideally.
4) For the dip, mix all the ingredients together. For a bigger hint of lemon add a squeeze or two of juice to suit.
Great recipe! Anything that gets veg into kids is great in my book and these look delicious. Even strawberries with mint and cumin sound good!
They look yummy. I’ll have to try them for my little girl. It’s a struggle to get her to eat any vegetables at the moment.
Yum to all of it Lou, those fritters sound awesome!
Janie x
A TRULY wonderful recipe and one that I would make in a heartbeat Lou! I am such a fussy person when it comes to courgettes, as they can be so “blah”, but these look tasty and appetising! Karen xxx
I have never ever managed to make courgette fritters look nice – so I am impressed. Love the recipe and handy for the summer courgette seasons.
These look gorgeous! one day I’ll get round to cooking again and I might just try these!
How lovely, a great way to use the inevitable glut of courgettes!
Ruby loves courgette fritters & I’ve been thinking about such delights while planting courgette plants this weekend, but these look a lot more interesting than the ones normally churned out in my kitchen. Can’t wait for my plants to start producing now, will definitely try these – and the lovely dip. Funnily enough, strawberries are the current glut….
Those look seriously good fritters, Lou! We’re hoping for a glut of courgettes later in the summer, so I’ll be putting this recipe to the test. I know my kids will adore them – anything dipped into a yoghurty dip works as far as they’re concerned… Great entry too for this month’s Spice Trail challenge. Thanks so much for sharing