Carrot & Zucchini Fritters

We’re fully immersed in August now. Here in the Northeast, August is a month of abundant garden harvests. All sorts of lovely vegetables are ripe on the vines and ready to be pulled in from the dirt, cleaned, and prepared for the table. Two of my favorite summertime staples are carrots and zucchini (also called summer squash). I always keep my refrigerator full of carrots. Raw carrots are one of my go-to snack foods for the kids. And my cousin stopped by recently with this gift of a giant, fresh zucchini. My favorite kind of visitor indeed!

I decided to split the zucchini in half. I shredded half of it into rice & beans for Marina and I used the other half to make one of my favorite dishes of all time — fritters. My love for fritters came early in life when my grandmother and I started our annual tradition of latke-making during the season of Lent.

This recipe is an adaptation of the recipe that we always used to make our latkes. Where we used shredded potatoes, in this recipe, I used shredded carrots and zucchini. I’ve been making this recipe all of my life, and so I have no idea about measurements. I simply add in the ingredients until everything looks and feels “right.” I’ve included some general guidelines below, but I suggest that you do the same.

Ingredients:

• 1 large carrot, cleaned & shredded
• 1 half large zucchini or 1 small zucchini, cleaned & shredded
• 1 cup flour, I’m obsessed with this flour at the moment
• 2 eggs
• salt & pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons of Parmesan cheese
• oil for frying, I use this

Directions:
Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Stir until everything is thoroughly mixed and combined, ensure an even coating of egg & flour on vegetables. Coat a frying pan generously with oil and heat over medium heat. Use a large spoon to scoop vegetables into oil and press gently into thick pancake shapes. Turn heat onto medium-high and fry until golden brown on each side.

Serve warm. Fritters are delicious with a dollop of sour cream or apple sauce on top. Enjoy!

I also want to take a moment to mention my vegetable grater. I shred vegetables a lot. It’s one of my many attempts to hide them in my my kids food. I’ve received a few questions about which grater I use and this is the one. It’s called OXO Good Grips Box Grater and I received it as a shower gift many years ago. It still works great and I love it.

So that’s all for this fritters post, friends! I hope that you’ll enjoy this recipe as much as I do. Have a wonderful day. xo