Greek Zucchini Fritters
Updated July 20, 2015
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
- Total Time
- 1 hour 20 minutes, plus 1 hour's refrigeration
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
2 pounds large zucchini, trimmed and grated on the wide holes of a grater or food processor
Salt
2 eggs
½ cup chopped mixed fresh herbs, such as fennel, dill, mint, parsley (I like to use mostly dill)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 cup fresh or dry breadcrumbs, more as necessary
Freshly ground pepper
1 cup crumbled feta
All-purpose flour as needed and for dredging
Olive oil for frying
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 to 8 servings)
16 grams carbs; 57 milligrams cholesterol; 365 calories; 19 grams monosaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 31 grams fat; 2 grams fiber; 436 milligrams sodium; 8 grams protein; 4 grams sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Salt the zucchini generously and leave to drain in a colander for one hour, tossing and squeezing the zucchini from time to time. Take up handfuls of zucchini, and squeeze out all of the moisture. Alternately, wrap in a clean dish towel, and squeeze out the water by twisting at both ends.
- Step 2
In a large bowl, beat the eggs and add the shredded zucchini, herbs, cumin, bread crumbs, salt and pepper to taste and feta. Mix together well. Take up a small handful of the mixture; if it presses neatly into a patty, it is the right consistency. If it seems wet, add more breadcrumbs or a few tablespoons of all-purpose flour. When the mixture has the right consistency, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour or longer.
- Step 3
Heat 1 inch of olive oil in a large frying pan until rippling, or at about 275 degrees. Meanwhile, take up heaped tablespoons of the zucchini mixture, and form balls or patties. Lightly dredge in flour.
- Step 4
When the oil is very hot, add the patties in batches to the pan. Fry until golden brown, turning once with a spider or slotted spoon. Remove from the oil, and drain briefly on a rack. Serve with plain Greek style yogurt if desired.
Advance preparation: The mixture can be assembled up to a day before you make and fry the fritters.Martha Rose Shulman can be reached at martha-rose-shulman.com.
Private Notes
Comments
Baked them instead of frying them. Turned out really well.
I have two other very similar recipes for zucchini fritters with feta, but they both use flour as a binder. I liked that this one used bread crumbs and I used panko that I had in the pantry. I used 4 large zucchini, which yielded 8 large fritters and I fried them in much less olive oil on medium high heat, 4 minutes per side. Served with tzatziki (Greek yogurt, garlic and cucumber sauce) on the side. Delicious!
I made this as one giant fritter. I added a shredded potato to the mix so the fritter would get brown and crispy. I baked it on a 14" cast iron pizza pan at 425F for 25 minutes. This is really good! I served the fritter with some homemade pesto on top. My husband and I sliced it like a pizza and we enjoyed it very much. I will make this again with whatever vegetables I have on hand.
Delicious! I followed a commenter's suggestion to bake instead of fry because I was tripling the recipe. Greasing the baking pan with olive oil made the fritters easier to flip. The extended family loved them!
I had just under 2 pounds of zucchini but used mostly the same amounts of the other ingredients, except for only one egg. A bit less cumin too. And instead of the listed fresh herbs, which were AWOL, I used fresh basil, which I have masses of. Followed a commenter's advice and made tzatziki, which was perfect with it. Honestly, a measly 5 stars are not enough for how delicious this was.
A good recipe, but I wouldn't follow her suggestion for mostly dill in the herb mix. I find it a little overpowering, especially if you eat with a slightly dill-y tzatiki. I also used canola oil instead of olive. I made two batches with a couple of days between, and I wouldn't recommend that as it does get a little soggy. They were very popular each day though!
We used half dill/half chives and fried in olive oil. Hard to imagine a Greek dish avoiding olive oil!