Dinner Table Rating 
1 thumb per family member
Cook’s Rating 
Accessibility of ingredients, ease of preparation, and affordability
Well, friends, the final score is in and the zucchini won this year. This is my last attempt at using some of it up before putting it all in the freezer for the winter (more on that later). But what a great recipe to end on! Sally calls these Zucchini Cakes, but I prefer to call them fritters. I have a hard time thinking of anything with onions in it as “cake”.
I know that photo just looks like a pile of greasy sausage from IHOP, but really, these fritters were a hit. They came together in a jiffy and everyone at the table liked them, especially the Peanut who would shove a bite into her mouth and then scream at you until you put another bite on her tray. Even the Pickle saw them cooking and said “Yum! Dat wooks good for dinner!” The only thumb withheld is my own, due to my food allergies.
I’m thinking of cooking up a big batch of these and trying to freeze them. I’d love to be able to pull these out with some of last week’s tomato soup. What a fabulous, instant dinner for the chilly days ahead.
Zucchini Fritters (Nourishing Traditions, page 411)
- 4 cups grated zucchini
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 4 eggs lightly beaten
- 1 small organic onion chopped
- 2 cups whole grain bread crumbs
- sea salt and pepper
- 1⁄4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1⁄2 cup Parmesan cheese
- 4 tbsp butter
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1. Mix zucchini with salt and let stand 30 minutes. Rinse well with filtered water and squeeze dry in a tea towel.
Salting veggies is a good, easy way of drawing out some of the liquid. When you’re trying to get little patties of zucchini to stick together in a frying pan, having too much water is a little counter-productive. When my zucchini is cut into chunks, I choose not to salt as it doesn’t seem to make much difference. When it’s shredded, I salt. Even after salting, I had a little puddle of liquid in the bottom of my bowl after I’d fried up all the fritters. Just leave the liquid in the bottom and don’t mix it back in.
2. Mix with eggs, onion, bread crumbs, cheese and cayenne pepper and season to taste. Form into cakes and saute a few at a time in butter in olive oil.
I don’t really prefer butter for frying, since the milk solids tend to burn quickly and then make the food taste burnt. I would use all oil next time, or perhaps a combination of olive oil and coconut oil or palm oil. If you want the butter flavor you could use ghee, which is butter with the milk solids removed.
I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to be freed from the tyrannical demands of the zucchini plant. Come back on Sunday and I’ll show you my preferred (read: EASY!) way to freeze all the rest of it so you can whip up zucchini bread all winter long.
