It’s late summer, and that time of year again where, despite losing some to the voles, we seem to have a persistent overabundance of garden-fresh summer squash.
Cocozelle, Black Raven, and Early Prolific Straight summer squash
After making batches of our favorite Zucchini Orange Bread numerous times this summer, we decided it was time to try something different. Zucchini fritters! After reading through a number of recipes, and multiple trials in the kitchen, these fritters have become a new summer favorite here, so we thought we should share. If you’ve been struggling to convince friends and family to eat their share of summer squash this season, this recipe is sure to appeal to even the pickiest of eaters!
Zucchini fritter with fresh garden herbs, and feta cheese
Zucchini fritters can be served hot or at room temperature, as a vegetable side dish, or as the main focus of the meal. In addition to using up extra summer squash, if you have chickens, they also help to use up a few extra eggs too!
Yield: 36 Small, or 12 Large Fritters.
Ingredients
1 lb Zucchini
1-1/2 Tsp Kosher Salt
1/2 Cup Chopped Scallions
1 Small Yellow Onion
1/2 Cup Fresh Dill, finely chopped
4 Tbsp Fresh Flat-leaf Italian Parsley, finely chopped
1/4 Cup Ricotta Cheese
1/2 Cup Feta Cheese, crumbled
4 Large Eggs, lightly beaten
1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
Fresh Ground Pepper
Olive Oil, for frying
Directions
Grate the zucchini, and set in a colander over the sink, or an empty bowl.
It's important to salt and drain the zucchini to remove excess moisture, or the batter will be soggy
Sprinkle the shredded zucchini with 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt, mix well, and allow the excess moisture to drain from the zucchini for 20-30 minutes.
Squeeze any remaining moisture from the zucchini, and place in a large bowl. Add the scallions, dill, and parsley, and mix thoroughly.
Fresh Dill
Grate the onion, squeeze the excess juice from it, and then add the onion to the zucchini mixture.
Stir in the ricotta and feta until evenly distributed, and add the remaining 1/2 tsp of Kosher salt, pepper to taste, eggs, and flour, mixing thoroughly.
This zucchini fritter batter is bursting with the aroma of fresh herbs
Place a saute pan over medium-high heat. Pour the olive oil into the pan to a depth of 1/4 inch, and once the oil is hot, and starts to shimmer, drop the batter in heaping tablespoonfuls (for small fritters), up to a scant 1/3 cup (for large fritters). Don’t crowd the fritters in the pan, or they will be difficult to turn over.
It's important not to disturb the fritter for the first two minutes of cooking while the first side browns
Allow the fritters to cook, undisturbed, for two minutes on the first side, before attempting to turn them with a spatula. Providing the oil is hot enough, and the first side is golden before turning, the fritters will not stick.
Turn the fritters to brown them on the other side for 2-3 minutes. Drain the fritters on paper towels, and hold in a warm oven while cooking the remaining batter.
Zucchini Fritters
They really are that simple! The fritters can be served alone, as a side, even as a burger substitute, or simply with a fresh garden salad, and are excellent served with fresh Tzatziki sauce (recipe follows). If you find yourself inundated with summer squash this season, these fritters make for an easy, and enjoyable summer meal. The shredded zucchini can even be frozen, to make fritters later in the year after the squash season is over.
Zucchini fritters, and garden fresh salad greens, make for a simple summer meal
Tzatziki Sauce
Ingredients
2-1/2 Cups Plain Greek Yogurt*
1 Medium Cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
1/2 Tsp Kosher Salt
1 Garlic Clove, minced
1 Tbsp Champagne (or White Wine) Vinegar
2 Tbsp Lemon juice, fresh squeezed
1 Tsp Lemon Zest
Pinch Fresh Ground Pepper
This simple Tzatziki sauce has a fresh, clean, slightly citrus flavor
In a medium bowl, thoroughly mix the yogurt, salt, pepper, garlic, vinegar, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Stir in the diced cucumber, and refrigerate for at least 30-60 minutes, before serving, to allow the flavors to blend.
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*If Greek yogurt isn’t available, substitute with 2 cups of plain yogurt mixed with 1/2 cup of sour cream.
Aw, yes .. an amazing/perfect combo … I want some (and now)! With all on your plate, I am always in awe that you not only have time to cook but photograph. My summer coming/going is crazy and barely have time to post a blog … so when I cook/we eat! Thank you, dear Clare 🙂
Actually, it took me at least two separate sessions making these fritters to get the photos. I kept forgetting to pick up my camera! That’s ok though, it’s not like we’re running out of squash around here! 😉
Clare, the recipe sounds wonderful. Perfect timing and my mouth is watering, since we just picked 5 zucchini yesterday. Hope you are picking plenty of tomatoes. We have only had a few here and there, enough to eat, that is until yesterday when we finally had a nice harvest of 9 pounds. Hope you have a wonderful week.
Well Diana, you’re ahead of us. It is a complete disaster on the tomato front this year. On the Central Coast the weather has been at least as bad as last year, if not colder. I think we’ve harvested 6 Stupice thus far, tomatoes, not pounds. Grrrr.
The voles damaged some plants in spring, and they’re not thriving. Our overnight lows have been too cold for some of the varieties to even set fruit. Blondkopfchen has been blooming its brains out, but set very little fruit.
Then to add insult to injury (vole injury that is), the vole damaged plants developed Fusarium wilt by early July, and now most plants are effected. I’m seriously considering grafting our tomatoes next spring, otherwise we’ll have to resort to hybrids that are resistant, instead of heirlooms. Disappointing all around, and I’m resisting a blog post until we know the full extent of the damage this year…but this time last year, we were harvesting a lot of fruit 🙁
Can any summer squash be used? I don’t have zucchini, but I do have yellow squash. The recipe sounds yummy!
The yellow squash will work just fine, even patty-pan squash would work. I’ve used some forgotten monster-sized squash too. Providing any large seeds are removed before shredding the squash, any summer squash is fine! 🙂
These sound soooo delicious! I love that they have cheese in them. Zucchini are doing very well here, so we’ll have plenty to make this recipe with. We also have lots of Patty pan squash. Do you have any recipes for them? 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing!!
I don’t use a lot of patty pan squash, but they can be used much as you’d use any other summer squash. However, they do have the advantage that they can be stuffed and baked too! 🙂
Clare,
these sound yummy, will have to try them. Have made zucchini pancakes before pretty tasty, just add shredded zucchini like fruit to the pancake batter.
Interesting idea, I wouldn’t have thought to just add the shredded zucchini to conventional pancake batter. Couldn’t be more simple!
Looking at these delish dishes…I. am. salivating. These look so good! Now I’m wishing I planted zucchini. I have to go buy some so I can make this recipe. YUM.
I think next year we may plant a little less 😛
They look scrumptious! Thanks for your step by step instructions of the recipe! Your orange zucchini bread sounds good too. I make zucchini bread a lot but never put orange in it. A nice twist!
I love the orange in the zucchini bread, along with the warm spices. I’ve tried a lot of zucchini bread recipes over the years, and it’s still my favorite!
Hi,
Mmmmm, I’m hungry now! The Fritters sound delicious – and so does the sauce to go with them; it’s very similar to a dressing I often make for salads too. Only I add poppy seeds.
You could absolutely use the sauce on just a salad. If there’s any leftover scallion or dill from the fritters, that goes great in Tzatziki too. I’ll have to try poppy seeds though, that sounds wonderful too!
I will definitely be trying these…yummy!!!
If you try them, let us know what you think! 🙂
They look delicious. Temperatures have dropped here so my plants are looking a little sad and have slowed production. I cannot believe I’m complaining about the shortage of zucchini!
We definitely haven’t had that problem this season, but our plants are just starting to wind down now too…thank goodness! 😉
Those fritters look fabulous! I am out of squash now, but I’ll have to buy some to try this out!
We’ve had a really long season with zucchini this year, perhaps in part due to our cooler weather this summer. We just starting to harvest our winter squash now too…and I can’t wait! It’s almost butternut squash season 🙂
Dear Clare, Can’t wait to make the fritters. Glad I have some zucchini left — I didn’t have an overabundance this year. P. x
I hope you try them Pam. They’re perhaps not the most healthy way to eat zucchini, but fun to make, and flavorful too!
Our zucchini is done for the year but we did grate and freeze some for later use. You have a few more ingredients in your fritters than my recipe, and they sound great, especially with that Tzatziki sauce!
I love that the shredded zucchini freezes so well, although this year I think we need a bigger freezer 😛 The Tzatziki, with a little citrus zest, I find brings a clean fresh bite to the dish. With any fried food, it’s easy for it to be heavy, but the crispness of the Tzatziki helps to balance that out. Although I’d use that sauce on a number of other foods too!
Wow, those fritters look so delish! Our Zucchini plant petered due to a faulty drip irrigation valve while we were on vacation, so we’re out of luck in the home-grown squash department this year. But I can still try your recipe with the store-bought stuff. I love, love Greek Yogurt (my fav is Fage), so the Tzatziki is right up my alley. Thanks for sharing!
That is the one thing that will set zucchini plants back, they’re not terribly drought tolerant, but that’s probably the only thing (other than voles) that slows them down much! 🙂 Hopefully you’ll have more than enough to try these next season.
Clare, I’ve been having trouble keeping up with all the zucchini and squash from my CSA and had run out of ways to cook them. Thanks for a new suggestion.
I often reach this point of the summer where I’m desperate for any different way to prepare zucchini. My next experiment in the kitchen will be zucchini pickles…we’ll see how they turn out 😉
Thank you for this. Have you tried zucchini flowers dipped in batter – quite the most fantastic delicious gourmandising dish! Italian secret is to make batter with half cold fizzy water and half cold beer to make them crunchy.
I’ve had ricotta stuffed zucchini blossoms in batter, and they were divine! I just don’t often think to harvest the blooms!
I have not made these in years. You have reminded me to make them again. And I am looking forward to trying the Tzatziki Sauce…thanks!
I wish I’d made them sooner 😉
Yum!!!! These are definitely going on the menu for next week!!! I’ve decided your Zuchini Orange Bread is going to ride out Hurricane Irene with us. Kiss my asster, Irene!! I’ve got Zuchini Orange Bread! Oh yeah!
Haha! I think that’s a fine way to ride out the storm. Let us know how it turned out!
We’re having a very late Sunday dinner here today and I am just so hungry after reading this. They look so delicious.
I don’t ever remember eating anything quite like this in England, although I don’t remember my parents growing any squash either. I probably wouldn’t have eaten it even if they had, but I’m glad to eat it now 😉
Yum yum yum! I love zucchini and I can’t wait to try this recipe – thanks for sharing! I’m under a mountain of tomatoes right now – perhaps you could throw out some tomatoes recipes too!
You’re kidding right? Tomatoes? This year for us has been worse than last year. You probably have the advantage on your side of the hill that your nights have been warmer. Ours have been so cold with the fog, frequently hovering around 50F or below, that fruit set has been abysmal this year, and I thought last year was bad! We have a few tomatoes, which this evening are destined for pizza: https://curbstonevalley.com/blog/?p=63
Fortunately our basil hasn’t been hindered by the weather, and is growing well.
Looks yummy! I wonder if I could substitute hard aged cheeses for the ricotta and feta. Think I’ll try it.
I think you could. I do like the extra lift and texture from the ricotta, but I certainly think the feta could be exchanged. I’m actually thinking of trying Gruyere in our next batch!
You will not regret the bit of extra time (you know, grating and all!) involved making this recipe! We used a gigantic zucchini bought at the Farm Stand in our neighborhood. I did the grating and produce prep the day before, then finished and cooked for dinner the next day. The salty feta and ricotta are simply perfect and they held together and browned up beautifully! The fritters are just delicious! Thanks!
So glad you tried these Susan, and enjoyed them! It does make quite a bit of batter, but the last couple of times I’ve made them, we’ve had leftovers for brunch or lunch the next day. I love how easy they are to cook, and that they don’t fall apart like some I’ve tried before, and they really are a great way to use up those rogue monster-sized squash!
Both loaves of the zuchini bread disappeared within 24 hours! I think my 19 yr old ate one loaf himself! Delish!! I used unsweetened applesauce and was impressed with the results. Yum!!
OH my poor dear zucchinis that died to the ravages of the squash bugs…how I wish you were still with me so I could get my grubby little hands on you and make this excruciatingly delicious-looking recipe. 🙂