Perfectly golden brown, crispy, and light zucchini fritters. Hold onto this recipe!
Zucchini is the wettest vegetable around. Close to it at least, right? Well, the moisture is great for baking zucchini bread and zucchini muffins. Not so great for fritters. Moisture strips these fritters of their crisp texture. They’ll be wet, gooey, and soft. So, the solution? Get as much moisture out of the zucchini as possible. Same with the potato as well– because we’re adding in a shredded sweet potato for flavor and substance. You’ll love it.
How much moisture you remove from the vegetables will make or break your fritters. Take the time to draw out as much moisture as you possibly can, even more than when you make zucchini casserole.
Use a large-hole box grater to shred your zucchini and potato. Place both in a strainer and press down with your hands to begin straining the water out. Next, wrap it all in a paper-towel lined bowl (or a clean dish towel) and just keep pressing. Let it sit for 45 minutes, then press again.
More fritter ingredients: beaten eggs, herbs, cornmeal, and cornstarch. The last two might be a little odd to you, but trust me! The cornmeal adds a wonderful, almost unexpected, crunch. The cornstarch helps to thicken the mixture up while also soaking up some liquid. The two also keep my zucchini fritters gluten free.
Liquid will pool in the bottom of the bowl as you scoop the zucchini mixture. Make sure you use a fork when scooping up small piles to form the fritters. You don’t want that liquid in the skillet.
Another trick for keeping your fritters crisp? Pan-fry in a little olive oil until they are golden brown on both sides. You only need enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. That’s plenty.
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Zucchini Fritters with Garlic Herb Yogurt Sauce
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 6 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
- Yield: 10-12 fritters
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Perfectly golden brown, crispy, and light zucchini fritters.
Ingredients
Garlic Herb Yogurt Sauce
- 1/2 cup plain Greek or regular yogurt
- 2 teaspoons chopped parsley
- 1 Tablespoon chopped fresh mint
- 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic
- salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
Fritters
- 2 cups shredded zucchini (2 small or 1 large zucchini)
- 1 cup shredded sweet potato (1 small, peeled)
- 1/3 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 large eggs
- 1 heaping teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
- 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh mint
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/3 cup cornmeal
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/3 cup olive oil
Instructions
- Make the yogurt sauce by whisking all of the yogurt sauce ingredients together except for the salt and pepper. Taste, then add salt/pepper to your taste. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Make the fritters: Place the shredded zucchini, sweet potato, and onion in a large strainer. Top with 1 teaspoon salt and mix it around with a large wooden spoon. Press down with your hands to begin draining some of the water from the vegetables. Let that sit in the sink for a few minutes. Meanwhile, line a large bowl with paper towels or a clean dish towel (easier to use a towel!). Place the vegetable mixture in the bowl and top with more paper towels or fold over the dish towel. Begin pressing down; you need to get out as much liquid as possible. Grab more paper towels or a new dish towel as needed. Note: you can also simply wring out the vegetables in the dish towel over the sink. Just keep wringing! Let the vegetables sit in the towels for 45 minutes, then press again. The goal is to remove as much moisture as possible. Otherwise, the fritters will be soggy. You will be amazed how much water you wring out!
- Whisk the eggs together in a large bowl. Once beaten, whisk in the garlic, parsley, mint, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Fold in the vegetables, then add the cornmeal and cornstarch until everything is combined.
- Heat the oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, use a fork to scoop up around 2 Tablespoons of the zucchini mixture (I always eyeball the amount). There may be liquid pooling in the bottom of the bowl, so make sure you use a fork so the excess liquid isn’t in your fritter. Place the mixture onto the hot skillet and flatten with a spatula. Repeat with a few more, making sure not to overcrowd the skillet. Cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes on each side. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate until finished.
- Serve warm fritters with yogurt sauce.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: These fritters are best cooked and eaten right away. They make great leftovers stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Reheat by placing on a lined baking sheet under the broiler for a couple minutes. Freeze fritters for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat as directed before.
- Adapted from Bon Appétit magazine.
Keywords: zucchini fritters
What can I use instead of cornmeal? 🙂
Whole wheat flour works nicely.
It was fabulous!! My kids even ate it!
I made these today and they are wonderful. I want to thank you for sharing the recipe with us.
Hi Sally! I have lots of zucchini lying around cos I just baked your zucchini bread + muffins! I also wanted to try this! Can I substitute the cornmeal with cornstarch? Thanks a lot!! We are excited to see your baby girl!!! <3
Hi Kate! Cornmeal and cornstarch are completely different from one another and I don’t suggest using it in this. You can use flour or even whole wheat flour instead 🙂 I love these with whole wheat flour.
My daughter is vegan. Can I use an egg substitute to do this?
I personally have not tried these with an egg substitute but if you try it let me know!
A helpful tip to get more moisture out quicker is to sprinkle some salt into the shredded zucchini and toss with your hands. Then let rest 5 minutes and the salt will have drawn out much of the moisture. I use this technique when I make zucchini linguini!
Looking forward to making these tonight!
I made these for lunch over the weekend…A batch made 10 and my husband and I ate 9 of them
Great recipe and great results! Yummy and easy fritters. I really loved them. Thanks for sharing!
Holy cow… I made these yesterday only because I had all the ingredients on hand. My expectations weren’t that high as I’d attempted similar things in the past and had been underwhelmed. But these fritters were OUTRAGEOUS. So good. I’m happy I went for the full batch so I had some to freeze!
Finally got around to making these yesterday and we loved them. I didn’t have time to make the yogurt sauce so we put parmesan cheese on them (next time I will make the sauce.). Everyone enjoyed them with a simple salad, it was a great lunch. Thanks!
I decided to make these as a vegetarian dish one night. I made them a little larger (burger diameter) and served them on sandwich thins with the dressing as the condiment, lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Delicious! It was light and refreshing, a great summer dinner! I will definitely be making these again!
Hi Sally, I just wanted to let you know that I’ve made these fritters twice in the past month! I was initially intimidated by the prep work but it is so worth it in the end. Tonight I doubled the recipe and have some leftovers. I am considering freezing them so that I’ll have some fritters on hand for when I get a craving for these yummy things 😉 Oh, and I must give special praise to that yogurt sauce! I’ve actually made the yogurt sauce more times than the fritters!–it’s so good and so multifunctional! Thanks for an awesome recipe!
I made these for dinner a few days ago, and they were really good. Because I am impatient, and I was hungry and pressed for time, I used my potato ricer to squeeze the liquid out of the vegetables. It works really well for this (also great to use to squeeze chopped cooked spinach). Thanks for a wonderful recipe!
These were really yummy! I served them with some shawarma style seasoned chicken. I found I didn’t need to drain them for very long and they still turned out lovely and crisp. In New Zealand I had a hard time figuring out what cornmeal was and where to buy it, for anyone in a similar boat I ended up buying polenta at an organic food store and I’m pretty sure that’s the same thing. Thanks for the recipe!
I made these a few days ago and they turned out great. I had tried making fritters before but they didn’t turn out right. The amount of liquid that came out amazed me. Will make them again. Maybe I will add a pepper to spice it up.
I replaced the sweet potato with beet (since its what I have available in my garden) and follow the rest of the recipe, absolutely divine. I’ll definitely make these again. Thanks!
Oh my goodness these are AMAZING! I served them with some smoked salmon and a poached egg for brunch today… Seriously good!
These were so friggin delicious that I just had to comment! I didn’t measure much, used a regular potato and forgot the mint but they were still great…I used the leftover fritters the next morning to replace typical hashbrowns (extra veggies!), topped with poached eggs and spinach! Thanks Sally!
Hope to eventually see a cookbook of dinner & savory recipes from you. I’ve made nearly every one that you’ve ever posted and they have all been DELICIOUS! 😉 Your turkey meatballs are a weekly staple in my house.
I made these last night and they were amazing. Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Made these last night and they were great! I didn’t have parsley though. I also have a husband and children who don’t do condiments so I didn’t make the sauce. One word of advise, probably use paper towels, my dish towels now smell like onions but that is nothing that some baking soda can’t remove:) Unless you use Vidalia onions – those would be a treat in these fritters. I went the totally healthy main course of costco hot dogs, so these fritters were a lifesaver for the good-for-you part of dinner:) Thanks Sally!
These are really really good Sally. Will make them again.
These look great! I’m planning to make these soon, but can I subsitute breadcrumbs for cornmeal? Thanks!
Breadcrumbs work.
Made the fritters tonight. Taking the time to be sure all of the moisture was out of the veggies made the fritters so crispy. The Yogurt sauce is amazing. Bringing fritters and sauce to work for lunch with a friend with some Cucumber and White Grape soup. I love your recipes.
Yum!! Just finishing up a supper of these (or a not-too-drastic variation thereof). Here we go…. I’m doing a low carb diet, so I had to leave out the cornmeal, but I did heed one commenter (word??) and added some cheese….. I used parmesan, and then I didn’t know how that would work with the mint so I omitted that. But my, they are good!! Later on I’ll try them again the right way…… looking forward to that cornmeal crunch! 🙂 Thanks!
These were delicious & I’m so thankful I had all the ingredients in my fridge. (Just asked a neighbor for some fresh parsley & mint from her garden and I was set). I actually made your Zucchini Muffins last night to use up some zucchini – best life choice ever. So, I was pumped to try a savory dish to use up my last remaining zucchini. (Although, I can’t stop snacking on the muffins).
If you are looking for a “tahini-inspired” sauce — Cooking Light has a recipe that my husband requests frequently — it calls for 2 T. Tahini, 2 T. water, 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice, 1 1/2 tsp. olive oil, 1/8 tsp. tsp. salt, and 1 small garlic clove, minced. Just whisk together and refrigerate until ready to use. They call it “Sesame Drizzle”.
Thanks for sharing another awesome dinner recipe, Sally!
Hi Michelle! I haven’t tried either, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work.