Spiced Courgette, Carrot and Feta Fritters

Sunday 13 May 2018
Fritters are surely the single most delicious way to deal with a glut in the garden! These lightly spiced vegetarian courgette (zucchini) and carrot fritters contain feta cheese for a tangy flavour. Whilst they work well as a side they are also great for breakfast and surprisingly tasty served cold in a packed lunch or picnic.


Spiced Courgette Carrot and Feta Fritters

My Granda Monearn was a fantastic gardener. A greenhouse full of the best smelling and tasting tomatoes ever, luscious strawberries protected under a net and laid on straw and three carefully weeded and precisely laid out vegetable patches. I also vividly recall him storing his onions in old pairs of my Granny's American tan tights! I'm assuming that there must have been some method in such apparent madness?! My own exploits in vegetables haven't been quite as fruitful partly due to the fact that I only have a couple of raised beds, nevertheless nothing tastes better than something you have lovingly grown yourself, protected from the ravages of weeds and slugs and harvested with your own fair hands. I was delighted to be approached by Aberdeen's Duthie Park as part of their National Gardening Week event line up to host a Vegetable Cookery Workshop within the Education Room of the Winter Gardens. Alas all my ingredients came from the supermarket - bar the foraged wild garlic - but hopefully the event provided some inspiration to the real gardeners who attended.

Duthie Park Winter Gardens Aberdeen Cookery Demo

Holding an event in a new or unusual space is always tricky. How many people can we fit in? Will anyone actually book a place? Such worries proved unfounded as the event was quickly fully booked with 16 people and a waiting list. On the menu for demoing and tasting were six dishes to be followed by a practical element with all the participants making their own jars of pickled veg to take home. To kick things off we got our vegetable tastebuds tingling with Carrot & Ginger and Beetroot, Apple & Ginger juices. I'd made these in the morning rather than haul my juicer along with me. It already seemed like I was bringing everything but the kitchen sink! Even a ladybird hitched a ride along with the wild garlic. 


Once Mrs ladybird had been safely re homed, the wild garlic made its way into pretty much all of the dishes. First up was a Kale Pesto inspired by the one we made on my trip to Ballintaggart Farm. Then came Asian Style Greens. Pretty much whatever greens you can get your hands on stir fried with ginger and garlic, dressed with sesame oil and soy sauce and sprinkled with chilli flakes and sesame seeds. The blowtorch came out to make Salsa Roca. If you don't have  flames to blacken the tomatoes you can do it in a dry non stick frying pan. 

Duthie Park Winter Gardens Aberdeen Cookery Demo

Next up was a slaw recipe from BBQ guru Marcus Bawdon of Country Woodsmoke The basic premise of which is equal volumes of grated carrot, celeriac and shredded red cabbage in a dressing of mayo, lemon juice, yellow American mustard, salt and pepper. Last to be cooked were the Spiced Courgette Carrot and Feta Fritters, the recipe for which I've shared below. Again this is one that you can ring the changes by using different vegetables and changing out or up the spices. 

Spiced Courgette Carrot and Feta Fritters

Courgette, Carrot and Feta Fritters
Makes 10-12

300g courgette/zucchini coarsely grated
300g carrot, coarsely grated
50g self raising flour
1 free range egg, beaten
3 spring onions, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
100g feta cheese, crumbled
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp corriander
½ tsp dried chilli flakes 
salt & pepper
oil for frying

To make the fritters, put the grated courgette and carrot in a large mixing bowl lined with a j-cloth or clean tea towel. Squeeze hard to drain out as much liquid as you can and ensure the vegetables are as dry as possible.
Dispose of the liquid and return the grated veg to the bowl, add the flour and eggs and mix well. Then add the spring onions, garlic ***we used wild garlic to replace both of these*** feta, spices, chilli and seasoning.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan over a medium heat.
Scoop heaped spoonfuls of the fritter mixture into the pan patting them down so they flatten slightly in the pan. 
Fry gently until golden brown on both sides. 
Drain on kitchen paper and keep warm until all the fritters are ready.

Spiced Courgette Carrot and Feta Fritters

To round off the event everyone made a jar of pickled vegetables to take home. This was based on the Buffet Pickles recipe from my blogging colleague Kevin at The Crafty Larder. In our pickle we used a rainbow assortment of vegetables including red onion, broccoli, carrot, peppers, cauliflower and radishes. Some also used red cabbage but you need to be aware that if you include this everything will turn purple! Don't say I didn't warn you...

Rainbow Pickles



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Fritters are surely the single most delicious way to deal with a glut in the garden! These lightly spiced vegetarian courgette (zucchini) and carrot fritters contain feta cheese for a tangy flavour. Whilst they work well as a side they are also great for breakfast and surprisingly tasty served cold in a packed lunch or picnic.

4 comments

  1. I loooove fritters! These look fantastic - love that you added feta!! They look so good with that creamy dip.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your fritters sound delicious. I hope to have some courgettes in my garden and will be looking for recipes later in the summer so will come back for this one.

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  3. Yum I love courgette fritters and feta, so what a bit of carrot added to the mix, they sound delicious. Thank you for linking to #CookBlogShare

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am loving the sound of these! Cumin and coriander are my two favourite spices.

    ReplyDelete

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