COURGETTE & MINT FRITTERS
Photography by Susan Bell: http://www.susanbellphotography.com
The humble courgette – you either love it or you hate it! However, courgettes are cheap and abundant in the summer months, and extremely versatile. These fritters are great as a standalone snack with a home made raita dip, or served with sausages and ketchup.
Makes 4 chunky or 6 thin fritters:
1 large courgette
a fistful of fresh mint
a fistful of fresh coriander
a fistful of fresh parsley
1 egg, beaten
2 heaped tablespoons plain flour
2 tablespoons oil
50g natural yoghurt
Finely grate the courgette into a large mixing bowl. Chop the herbs and add around three-quarters to the courgette in the bowl, and set the rest aside for the yoghurt dip.
Mix the beaten egg into the courgette and the herbs with a fork. Add a tablespoon of flour and mix until it has formed a batter. You may need to add a little more flour to make the batter thicker than a pancake batter. Ideally it will stick to the prongs of your fork but come loose with a shake.
Heat the oil in a frying pan and dollop a level tablespoon of the batter in. Flatten with the back of a spoon and shape the edges quickly to form a rough circle. Repeat until you run out of space in the pan, with a small gap around each for ease of turning. You may have to cook them in batches! Fry on a low heat for a few minutes, until golden and crispy on the underside. Turn over with a spatula or fork and cook on the other side. Repeat until all the batter is used up.
Stir the remaining herbs into the natural yoghurt and serve with the fritters as a dip.
Tip: Add cheese to make these extra special – for the recipe above, 50g of cheddar or a Greek cheese would complement the flavours perfectly.
Courgette and mint fritters recipe from A Girl Called Jack by Jack Monroe. Available to order from The Hive to support your local independent book shops. Also available from major retailers and supermarkets.
Jack Monroe. Twitter: @MsJackMonroe. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/agirlcalledjack
Categories: Recipes & Food, VEGAN, Vegan Recipes, VEGETARIAN
Fritters look tasty.
If you cut courgette into long thin ribbons and steam gently, you can use it in place of pasta – just add sauce/seasoning of your choice.
Ooh, this might be tomorrows lunch inspiration, with a bolognese style sauce!
I was thinking the same thing but you can use slices of courgette instead of lasagne sheets.
sounds great! I might try some with rice. Can you bread crumb them as well?
Additional variations, you can add feta or goats cheese or grated hard cheese to these for something extra special, mm! I think you could probably batter and breadcrumb them if you wanted to, let me know how it goes. X
I can confirm that whole courgettes do NOT freeze as I’ve tried it : ) However, bags of grated courgette do freeze and can be added to soups, breads, or tomato sauces etc. This does work.
Have you tried courgettes in scrambled egg or omelettes? I love it.
Have you got anywhere that you can put a large plantpot/bag for life to grow your own? Courgettes grow so very easily and a 29p/35p pack of seed from Lidl or Wilkinsons would give you far more courgettes than you bought in Sainsburys. even from just one plant…
I’m planning on being organised and growing my own this year, might have to move the draining board around a bit to plonk a bucket on my kitchen windowsill! I balked at the £1.80 for 6 courgettes, at 30p each they’re one of my most expensive ingredients! Would they grow in a 10l bucket with some stones in the bottom for drainage?
Courgette plants are quite big and sprawl everywhere, mine last year were about 2 feet high and the same in width. So not really feasible for a worktop :~(
Regards
Pat
Ah. In that case I’ll try to commandeer some space behind my front wall…!
I love his recipe and so do all my friends and family I’ve cooked it for,thanks !
Has anyone tried freezing these? Does it work OK? Should they be frozen before or after being cooked?
I tried these courgette & mint fritters tonight. Very quick to make and delicious. They’re also surprisingly filling, so I’ll be making ’em again.
Hey, Jack, I found your website as a friend emailed me a link to the Guardian article about you. I am so happy to have discovered your blog! I am a (gay) single mum of two (ages 3 & 1) and, thankfully, have never found myself in the terrible state of poverty that you describe. However, we don’t have that much money to spend on food – the total budget is £40 per week for food, but that is also our “going out” and “clothing/haircut” budget so if we have a trip to the park with a couple of ice-creams (or equivalent) and a trip to the swimming pool, our budget can easily become £30 for food. Less if there’s a birthday party to go to and a present needing bought etc. This weekend, I’ve made your mandarin/poppyseed loaf (all gone already!), your chilli (I loved it, children abit less keen – less onion next time, I only used a tiny bit of chilli) and these fantastic fritters. I made double the quantity of the fritters as I tend to get very peckish as still breastfeeding (!) and used “egg substitute” from health food store as youngest is allergic to dairy and eggs (can be tricky; substitute milk alone uses a large portion of our weekly food budget as he’s now on oatmilk rather than the prescription-based dairy-free formula to top-up breastmilk). We enjoyed some of the fritters cold in the park, and the rest warmed up tonight with the remainders of yesterday’s chilli reheated. I think you’re doing an amazing job being so creative and inventive with food and can’t wait to try out more of your recipes. Also, if you ever want a holiday with your wee man (as I know holidays can be hard to come by when broke) do come to Belfast where we live, can put you up in spare room or in a friend’s house!
Amazing recipe….made these fritters this evening and absolutely loved them. Thank you for sharing this recipe on such an amazing and inspiring blog.