Who doesn’t love a good fritter? The word itself is fun to say, and the actual food thing – little patties of sheer amazingness – are even more pleasing to eat. This vegan zucchini fritter recipe, like most fritter recipes, is a super easy and delectably tasty anytime-of-the-day kind of food: breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Whenever and wherever, they never disappoint.
So roll up your sleeves, bust out your hand-held graters and zucchini, and prepare for a wonderful and gingery vegan zucchini fritter recipe.
Vegan Zucchini Fritter Recipe – A Plant-Based Spin on a Classic
Search the interwebs, and you’ll find a billion zucchini fritter recipes – it’s a classic food thing, so it makes sense that it’s been embellished upon and reinterpreted so much. Even with so many iterations upon this idea, I still wanted to make a zucchini fritter recipe – one that was plant-based of course, but also more distinct and different.
The first feat was easy – making a vegan zucchini fritter recipe was not hard. Essentially, all you have to do is find a way to hold the patties together without eggs. I discovered that chickpea flour, the flour that I use in this fritter, acts kind of like a binder all by itself. Not only that, but it also imparts a lovely, full-bodied flavor and just happens to make this vegan zucchini fritter recipe gluten-free, too.
But that wasn’t quite enough to make an impression. Sure, chickpea flour in lieu of all-purpose was a start, but I wanted to give them a kind of signature flavor that would complement the zucchini without overwhelming it. The addition of fresh and ground ginger worked wonders to achieve this, and happened to be is a great pairing with the grated green squash. The two forms of the spicy root gives this vegan zucchini fritter recipe a extra lil’ kick, rendering them quite special and, most importantly, quite tasty.
The Tricky Nature of Fritters – Textural Duality
I’ve made quite a few fritters thus far, namely these Carrot Fritters and these Green Lentil Fritters. However, the perfect and illustrious zucchini fritter always seemed to eluded me. Whenever I’d attempt to make one, they’d be too watery, or too doughy, or too flat – good flavor though, so I knew I was close, but I couldn’t get the texture right.
The texture is the key thing in a fritter. It’s got to be crispy on the outside without being tough, and at the same time pillowy and soft on the inside, without being goopy. It can be tricky to obtain this particular textural duality, and it took me awhile to figure out how to get the fritters to that point.
But, through continual trial and error, I learned that all success or failure with fritters begins before the patties even hit the pan – it begins with the batter!
Read the Batter like an Ikea Furniture Instruction Manuel
Learning to read a batter is a bit of an art. For this recipe, the batter is naturally going to be quite wet, since zucchini are like 90% water, but you still need to make sure that the fritters hold their own in the skillet.
Test and re-test the batter the same way you read and re-read Ikea instructions for a bunkbed. You want a batter that, when formed into a fritter patty, holds its shape relatively well and doesn’t just slump away into wide blob like a drowsy house cat snoozing on a couch.
Don’t be wary of fretting over the fritter batter to get the consistency just so. Here are some tips and tricks that you can do to achieve a stalwart zucchini fritter batter:
- Drain, lightly salt, and then lightly press the shredded zucchini in a colander before you mix it with the rest of the ingredients. Let it sit there for a couple minutes, and gravity will be your extra set of invisible hands. This will remove excess water before you begin the batter.
- Secondly, add more chickpea flour than the recipe calls for if the batter still seems too loose. This is a good way to balance out the excess goop, and also a way to respond to a batter that doesn’t hold its intended patty shape.
- Next, let the batter rest for 10 minutes after mixing everything together. This allows the baking powder to do its thing before frying, and may give you a fluffier, more voluminous fritter and better texture inside.
- And lastly, consider frying up a test fritter to see if the batter holds up. If it doesn’t, re-read your batter and then think about adding more chickpea flour.
Fritter Your Heart Out with This Vegan Zucchini Fritter Recipe
Seriously, once you make these, you’ll be hooked on fritters for good. They’re hearty, comforting, gingery, and just super delicious all-around. Plus, pretty easy to make if I do say so myself.
Give this vegan zucchini fritter recipe a go – you’ll be back for more.
Ginger Zucchini Fritters
Equipment
- Fine colander or sieve
- Large mixing bowl
- Skillet
Ingredients
- 2 cups grated zucchini, drained in a colander and/or pressed (2 cups = about 4 – 6 small zucchini or 1 – 2 large zucchini)
- 6 tablespoons chickpea flour, (6 tablespoons = ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons)
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons fresh ginger, microplaned or very finely minced/grated
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- Couple tablespoons olive oil, for frying
Instructions
- Grate the zucchini until you have about 2 packed cups worth. Salt the grated zucchini lightly, and then place in a sieve to drain. Gently press down the shredded zucchini to help remove excess moisture.Alternative: you can also press the zucchini by laying it across paper towels and then the paper towels across a light cloth. Roll the cloth tightly and press down on the zucchini inside it once rolled. This method ensures that more moisture is released from the zucchini than the colander method.
- Then, once the zucchini has drained, combine it along with all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Let the mixture rest for 10 minutes.
- Then, form medium-sized patties, and fry for 2 – 3 minutes on each side in a skillet with olive oil over medium heat, or until perfectly golden brown.
- Serve with sriracha, or whatever else you want to have with them.
Video
Nutrition
I hope that you enjoyed this vegan zucchini fritter recipe. If you did, please leave me a comment and recipe rating below.
May you have good food in good company,
That Vegan Nephew
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These are creamy on the inside, crispy on the outside, and really really good. With a dollop of hot sauce and a nice carrot Tahini salad on the side – a stellar dinner.