Veggie Fritters (WARNING: addictive!)

Today, I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out what to post. I’ve been blogging a lot less the last few months due to major life changes, but here I am again, trying to get back into the swing of things.

I’m happy you’re here, too, on the other side of the screen. And I’d like to share with you a recipe I made the other week.

I recently bought the famous cookbook Jerusalem and have been learning more about Jewish culture, so I was in the mood to make something Jewish. However, as you know, I also love Indian food, and my love for it bleeds into everything I do with the spices I use!

So! If you’ve had Indian pakoras or Jewish latkes, then you have some idea of what these amazing little fried veggies are! Fritters are basically just shredded, breaded, and fried veggie cakes.

With fritters, you can be creative. You can mix it up. You can use one vegetable, two, three, four! I decided to use everything in my fridge that needed to be cooked, so I ended up with lots of veggies in my cakes.

Fritters are great for a snack or as a side dish. You can create a number of sauces to dip them into, as well.

Veggie Fritters

1 medium onion, diced
6 cloves of garlic, minced
2-3 inches of ginger, minced
1 large bunch of spinach
Half a head of cauliflower, steamed and diced
About as much broccoli as cauliflower (including the stem), steamed and diced
Medium sweet potato, shredded
1 cup of einkorn flour (buy here)
1 tsp baking soda
Basil
Black/brown mustard seed (buy here)
Sea salt (buy here)
Black pepper (buy here)
Red pepper flakes (buy here)
Cheese, about 1 cup when grated (I use this kind)
4 large eggs, preferably pastured
Lemon zest (recipe for fermented lemon zest)
Ghee for frying (buy here)

First, sauté the onion, garlic and ginger in butter, until the onion becomes soft. Add the chopped fresh spinach, cook for 2 minutes, and remove from heat.

While that is going, cut up the cauliflower and broccoli into large chunks, and steam until tender. Then remove from steamer, drain, and lay out on a cutting board. Cut into 1/4 inch pieces, then move to towels to dry.

Grate a sweet potato, and use a towel to remove as much moisture as you can, squeezing the potato to wring out the water. Lay the grated sweet potato out on towels to continue drying as you prepare the other ingredients.

In a small bowl, mix together the einkorn flour, baking soda, and spices. Grate the cheese.

In a large bowl, crack the eggs and whisk together with the lemon zest. Add the vegetables, making sure that they are as dry as possible before doing so. Toss the veggies in the egg mixture, then sprinkle with the flour mixture and cheese. Thoroughly toss everything together.

Next, in a large skillet, heat up 1/4 cup of ghee. Ghee is great for frying because of it’s high smoke point. It’s also full of flavor and essential vitamins! It’s a superfood, so there is zero guilt frying in it! I love it!

Heat up the ghee until it pops and fizzes when you flick a droplet of water into it. Then, drop 2-tablespoon-sized spoonfuls of fritter batter into the pan and flatten with the back of the spoon. Fry until golden on one side, then flip and fry the other side.

Remove from pan and drain on paper towels when done. Transfer to glass dish in a 200˚F preheated oven if you wish to keep them warm while cooking the rest of the fritters.

I served my fritters along with lamb chops and acorn squash and grilled eggplant mash.

Yoghurt Dipping Sauce

The dipping sauce is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY for this treat to be complete, and it’s easy to make! There are only two ingredients:

1-1/2 cups kefir or plain yogurt (how to make kefir)
1/2 tsp cumin powder (buy here)

Whisk the kefir and cumin together, and voila! You have a delicious dipping sauce for your fritters! Enjoy!