These tasty courgette fritters give you the best of both worlds: fried food plus green vegetables. They formed part of the cooking workshop I took part in recently, with Masterchef SA runner-up Sue-Anne Allen and Isidingo star Keketso Semoko. Try them out for a quick and easy starter, or bulk them up with a carbohydrate for a main meal (I’m thinking that they’d go beautifully with feta and chickpea couscous).
Read: Five spice chicken with cauliflower purée and baby spinach
Courgette fritters recipe
Serves 4 as a starter
Ingredients:
500g courgettes
1 red birds eye chilli, deseeded and chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
15g basil, finely chopped
1 Tbsp chopped spring onion
180g wholewheat breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper to taste
1 eggs, beaten
Spray and cook, or olive oil
Method:
- Grate the courgettes and drain well: it helps if you squeeze the leftovers in a dishtowel to get as much juice out as possible.
- Place in a bowl, combine with the rest of the ingredients, and season with salt and pepper.
- Allow the mixture to rest in the fridge, covered, for at least 15 minutes.
- Remove mixture from the fridge and roll into balls: each fritter should use about 3 tablespoons.
- Add olive oil or substitute to your pan on medium heat. Drop each ball into the pan and flatten into an even round.
- Fry for 2 minutes on each side until golden.
- Repeat until all the balls has been used.
- Serve on fresh rocket leaves with slices of fresh lemon or tomato
Squeeze as much juice as possible out of the courgettes to avoid crumbly fritters
Rolling the mixture into balls is easier if it's chilled: like most things, really
All photos courtesy of Novo Nordisk’s Changing Diabetes campaign.
