These crispy vegetable fritters use a chickpea flour base with mixed vegetables for delicious high-protein, gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free vegetable pancakes/fritters! Serve as an appetizer, side, or snack for a delicious veggie-packed treat.
Grate the zucchini, carrot, and potato with a manual grater (medium holes) or using a grater disk in a food processor.
Salt the vegetables to remove the excess water. Do this by adding the salt to the vegetables, mixing, and allowing them to sit for 10-15 minutes.Alternatively, leave them to drain in a sieve (over a bowl) and press out the remaining liquid after resting.
Meanwhile, prepare the flax/chia egg by combining 1 Tbsp ground chia with 3 Tbsp water, mixing, and leaving to thicken for 10 minutes.
After sitting, transfer the vegetables to a nut milk bag or muslin cloth/cheesecloth and squeeze out as much liquid from the vegetables as possible (read notes for using this drained liquid).
Step 2: Prepare the vegetable fritter batter
I find it easiest to first mix the spices and chickpea flour in a separate bowl. However, feel free to add them directly to the drained vegetable mixture and mix well to combine.
Add the chia egg and mix once more until thoroughly incorporated
Step 3: Shape and fry the vegan fritters
For even-sized fritters, separate the batter into 1.8oz/50g pieces and shape it into round patties. I do this by placing them between two layers of parchment paper and rolling them out slightly.At this point, you can freeze any you don’t plan on using immediately.
For those that you plan on cooking immediately, heat up 1-2 Tbsp of oil in a larger skillet over medium-high heat and then transfer 1-2 fritters to the pan (based on the size of the pan).Fry for 2-3 minutes per side, flattening/pressing with a spatula for crispier results. Leave the cooked patties to drain on some kitchen paper while you cook the remainder of the batch, or keep warm in the oven (at 230ºF/110ºC) until you're ready to serve!
Notes
Draining the vegetables: make sure to squeeze out as much moisture as possible; otherwise, the vegetable fritters might not bind properly and could be soggy when cooked.
The leftover drained liquid: there's no reason to throw this away. You can add it to vegetable stock or soup bases, use to cook rice/pasta, add to curries, or even add it to bread doughs in place of water. You could even add it to smoothies (if it isn't too salty).
Experiment with herbs/spices: it's easy to change the flavor of these vegetable fritters with different herbs and spices, so feel free to experiment.
Optional Add-insThere are several ways you can adapt this vegetable fritters recipe, including:
Other vegetables: I already have a recipe for Korean pancakes that use mixed vegetables – any of which you can use for this version. Green onions, shredded broccoli, corn, eggplant (needs to be salted), and peppers work particularly well. You could also try swapping out the regular potato for sweet potato or butternut squash, though those usually take longer to cook, so you may need to pan-fry them slightly first to soften.
Other herbs: experiment with herbs based on the vegetables you use in these chickpea fritters. Dill, parsley, chives, cilantro, etc.
Spices: you can add a little nutritional yeast to the spice mixture for a slightly cheesy nutty flavor. For heat, you can add chili/cayenne powder.
Cheese: you can also add some of your favorite dairy-free cheese of choice, like shredded mozzarella or vegan parmesan. For vegetarian fritters, you could use parmesan or cheddar.
Check the blog post for more tips and answers to top FAQs.