Stacks of veggies (Carrot Fritters)

I recently discovered Nigel Slater. And his corn fritters. They are light and fluffy with very little flour and they don’t end up thick and doughy in the middle.

Since then I have been experimenting with vegetable fritters. 

I particularly like zucchini fritters so I dressed the fritters up with some spices from a recipe I found on the Jamie Oliver site. I've tried beating the egg white for these fritters (as Nigel  Slater does for his corn fritters) but they end up quite soft and fragile and I wanted these to be a bit more like hash browns.

Oh, and I ran out of zucchini so I made them with carrots: I think they might be even better!

Serves 2 people as a main

Ingredients

6 large carrots peeled and coarsely grated. Or zucchini. Or a mixture.

1 egg

3 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes

10 fresh mint leaves, chopped

2 pieces (+/- 50-70g) feta, crumbled

Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil for frying

Tzatziki (see recipe below) and plum tomatoes to serve.

Place the carrots, flour, cumin, paprika, chilli, mint, feta, egg, salt and pepper into a bowl.

Mix together.
 

Heat a pan over medium-high heat. Add some olive oil. Place a heaped tablespoon of fritter mixture in the pan and flatten with the back of the spoon.

 

Flip when the underside is cooked and starting to brown.

Serve as a side dish or as a stack with Tzatziki and plum tomatoes.

 

Tzaztiki

Ingredients

½ English cucumber

250ml plain yoghurt (Greek if you have it)

1 clove garlic, crushed

10 mint leaves, chopped

1 tsp lemon juic

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

Grate the cucumber.

Add salt, let rest for a few minutes and squeeze out the extra water.

Mix with the yoghurt, garlic, mint, lemon juice, pepper and a dash of olive oil. Place in a cheesecloth and refrigerate for an hour.

(You are supposed to drain the yoghurt first, I think. I was a little lazy so I didn’t strain the yoghurt  but decided to strain the whole thing. Not sure what the pros and cons of this approach are but seem to work.)

 

Serve with carrot fritters (above)