A good fritter is just one of those foods that you can have for any meal: breakfast, brunch, dinner, or lunch. And these vegan carrot fritters in particular are no exception. Make them when the sun is high in the sky or as a bit of nocturnal nosh. These moist vegan carrot fritters are delicious, unctuous patties to salivate over, not to mention also gluten-free and quite easy to make.
Vegan Carrot Fritters & How To Fritter Well
To me, the sign of a good fritter is that it’s texturally satisfying, with a crispy crunch on the outside, but soft and creamy on the inside. The fritter must also taste and embody its main ingredient, in this case carrots! Also important is that they aren’t overtly oily. I know it’s a lot of criteria, but these vegan carrot fritters will satisfy all those requirements and more.
Firstly, parboiling the carrot and onion first helps to cook the veggies more thoroughly, so the texture overall is improved, in my opinion. Personally, I’m not a fan of partially cooked carrot and onion in a fritter. The only downside to this is that you tend to lose some of the carrot flavor in the boiling process. For that reason, I suggest to save some of the carrot water to thicken the ground flaxseed to restore some of the flavor that way.
Ground Pistachio & Texture
A later discovery was the addition of the ground pistachio, which is vitally important. It adds body and texture to the inside of the fritter.
More generally speaking, ground nuts often help to solidify typically gooey or soft textures in a pleasant way. In this instance, the pistachios offset a lot of the excess gooey-ness from the ground flaxseed and wet chickpea flour, while also imparting a beautiful speckling of green throughout the cakes and a wonderful flavor of their own, too.
Vegan Carrot Fritters: A Recipe To Bookmark!
Overall, these vegan carrot fritters are a delicious, surprisingly satisfying food for anytime of the day. An added benefit is that they’re also gluten-free, since chickpea flour takes the place of all-purpose. In many ways, they remind me of a salmon or crab cake, both in appearance and texture. It’s possible that they could be modified, by adding bits of nori or some lemon juice for example, to more accurately portray those particular foods.
Also, if you are interested in a way of cooking these without oil, I would suggest baking them.
So, if you’re feeling for a fritter, give these a try! I would suggest serving them with some lemon wedges, vegan sour cream (the brand Tofutti makes an exceptional one), and a hot sauce like sriracha.
Vegan Carrot Fritters
Equipment
- Skillet
Ingredients
- 2 cups grated carrot, about 2 – 3 large carrots
- 1 yellow onion, finely diced
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
- 6 tablespoons boiled carrot water
- ½ cup chickpea flour
- ½ cup pistachios, ground finely
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- Some olive oil, for frying
Garnishes
- Some vegan sour cream, like Tofutti
- Some sriracha
- Some lemon wedges
Instructions
- Grate the carrot and chop the onion. Next, bring the 4 cups of water to boil at a steady simmer in a medium sauce pan. Then, boil the carrot and onion briefly, until slightly tender – about 3 minutes. After that, drain the carrots and onions well, and save about ½ cup of the carrot water. Strain and press the moisture from the carrots and onions before transferring them to a large mixing bowl.
- Combine the ground flaxseed with 6 tablespoons of the boiled carrot water that you saved in a small bowl. Allow it to thicken for about 5 minutes.
- Now, add the flaxseed mixture, chickpea flour, ground pistachios, baking powder, salt, smoked paprika, and garlic powder to the large mixing bowl that has the carrots and onions, and mix until everything is well incorporated.
- Preheat a skillet over medium heat with olive oil, and form decent-sized patties. Fry the fritters two at a time on each side until dark golden brown, about 3 – 4 minutes for each side.
- Set the fritters on a paper towel to remove excess oil, and then serve with lemon wedges, vegan sour cream and sriracha.
Notes
Nutrition
I hope you enjoyed these vegan carrot fritters! If you did, leave me a comment and rating before you go.
Additionally, you might also enjoy these green lentil fritters – they are similar of these…and equally delicious, or check out this carrot recipe: Vegan Carrot Bacon and CBLTs!
May you have good food in good company,
That Vegan Nephew
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These were really good. With the lemon and sour cream they reminded me of salmon cakes in color, texture. Maybe add a little nori to fool the palate. These were good cooled to room temperature too as a snack. Delicious.