Crispy Zucchini Halloumi Fritters with the golden fried crunch of the cheese and a perfectly cooked inside brimming with spices. Make the perfect zucchini fritter every single time with the salting and squeezing technique. This recipe makes 8 small snack-sized fritters or 4 large zucchini burgers ready to be stuffed in buns with your favourite condiments. With a side of a lip-smacking good Green Avocado Salad!
Salting Zucchinis And Draining Before Cooking
Zucchinis are notorious for weeping large amounts of liquid. Recipes often call for squeezing the zucchini to remove excess liquid before using it in batters. I like salting the zucchini first, just like I love salting tomatoes. Salting zucchinis not only draws out the excess liquid faster but also intensifies the flavour of the vegetable. For zucchini fritters and zucchini bread recipes, salting the zucchini first and then squeezing out the liquid not only makes the zucchini nice and dry but adds a lovely subtle saltiness to the finished dish. You only need small amounts of salt.
This is how you should be salting and draining zucchinis.
- Grate zucchini using a box grater. Place grated zucchini in a large sieve resting over a bowl. Sprinkle with half or one teaspoon of salt.
- Mix it well into the grated zucchini and let the zucchini rest for 10 minutes.
- In ten minutes or so, your zucchini will have deflated and sagged with all the water and will be ready to squeeze.
- Move the zucchini to one side of the sieve, grab handfuls of it and squeeze over the empty side of the sieve so the liquid drains straight down to the bowl.
- A solid 3-4 minutes of squeezing two large zucchini will produce almost a cup of liquid. This beautiful green zucchini juice is full of the same nutrients as the zucchini (minus the fibre) and can be drunk straight up or added to mocktails, smoothies, green juices etc.
Shaping And Frying Zucchini Fritters
The halloumi is a great addition to this zucchini fritter as it adds a delicious saltiness to the fritter and cooks to golden perfection while retaining its shape. It also adds a good amount of protein, which is something I have been consciously including in all the recipes I have been cooking lately.
The recipe below makes 7-8 small snack-sized fritters (if you scoop 1/3rd cup full into the frying pan) or 4 very good-looking large zucchini burgers (if you scoop 1/2 cup full into the frying pan). Smaller-sized fritters are great to grab and go. Larger burger-sized fritters make a beautiful complete meal when stuffed in a Brioche bun with chutney, relish and salad leaves. On Sundays, I love to serve the larger-sized fritters with a topping of smoked trout or salmon, some tomato relish and fresh rocket leaves. It makes for a beautiful light cafe-style meal.
To fry the zucchini fritters, make sure you use medium-low to low heat. I first crisp both sides on medium heat for 1-2 minutes each, then reduce the heat to low and cook each side for 3-4 minutes until the fritter is cooked through. Crispy on the outside and perfectly cooked on the inside. I hope you enjoy these fritters, they are so more-ish. Don't forget to share your feedback with me via the comments below. Happy cooking guys! x
More Fritter Recipes
Recipe
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Ingredients
- 2 (500 g) large zucchinis, grated
- 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil + extra for frying the fritters
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 3 spring onion, thinly sliced
- 180 g halloumi cheese, grated
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- Freshly crushed black pepper
- 1 egg, whisked
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ cup (90 g) plain flour
Instructions
- Place grated zucchini in a large sieve over a bowl. Sprinkle with the salt and toss gently to thoroughly mix zucchini and salt. Set aside for 10-15 minutes. Press down on the zucchini in the sieve or grab handfuls and squeeze out the water. Do this a few times till you feel zucchini is quite dry and squeezing doesn’t release water anymore.
- Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan. Add garlic and spring onion. Sauté for a minute or two until spring onion is wilted. Remove from heat. Scoop into a large bowl.
- Add squeezed zucchini and grated halloumi to the bowl. Add oregano, thyme, basil, smoked paprika, black pepper and egg. Mix well.
- Add baking powder and flour to the bowl and gently mix until just combined.
- Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan on medium. Scoop one-third cup of the fritter batter onto the hot pan. Add up to 2-3 more fritters depending on the size of your pan. Cook each side for 3-4 minutes until golden. Reduce heat to medium-low or low and cook each side for a further 3-4 minutes (this helps dry out the fritter and firm it up). When cooked through and crispy, remove the fritter onto a plate lined with paper towel. Repeat with the remaining batter.
- Fritters can be eaten hot or stored in the fridge for up to 3 days in an air-tight container. Individually cooked fritters can be packed in ziplock bags or in a freezer-safe container, separated by baking paper and frozen for up to a month. To eat, they can be toasted or microwaved from frozen.
Hey, I cannot eat eggs. How can Si replace them? Thanks!
Try a flax egg instead (1 tbsp flax meal mixed in 3 tbsps water and allowed to rest and thicken for 5 minutes). If you can't find flax meal, try adding a tablespoon of chickpea flour (besan) as an egg replacement.
thanks a lot!! It was yummy delicious, loved them. And the egg replacement worked perfectly well.
Delicious! And perfectly seasoned from halloumi and the salting of the zucchini.
Thank you for the recipe!
Brilliant! so glad you loved it. thank you so much! x
Hi Sneh, do you think this recipe could be doubled - or is it better to make 2 separate batches ? (I’ve got a monster zucchini waiting for its destiny) ps I love how you work so hard to test the recipes + share the techniques + tips that have worked for you. Thank you! !
Ah Ania! I am sorry for the delayed reply. Doubling works really well with this recipe. I have done it. Hope you can double it next time you have a monster zucchini from your garden (how lucky!)
Easy and lovely fritters. Just made them now ! Served the greek yogurt for a breakfast.
Thanks for sharing.
Absolutely delicious, Sneh! I will definitely be making these again. I had some lovely dried oregano from the garden, which added such an incredible burst of flavour.
I had to make some changes to the recipe based on availability of ingredients and dietary requirements.
-I had only 2 zukes in the fridge, which were just under 500gm, so used a small carrot
-In a bid to make it healthier and gluten-free, I substituted the AP flour with buckwheat flour and besan 1:1
-Perhaps due to the change in flour, the mixture turned out to be a bit dry (sort of like a dough), so I added a splash of the water drained from the zucchini
Is there a veggie you can use instead of zucchini?
just carrots will work really well but since carrot is a hard veg, you'll need to compensate with maybe an additional egg in the batter or a splash of some liquid like water/stock/buttermilk.
These were amazing.. great tips for the oil and extra squeezing of the zucchini, thank you for sharing this recipe.
And the dried herbs worked great 😉
Who ON EARTH doesn’t use dried herbs?
🙂 🙂
We're about to have a zucchini explosion from our garden. I'm looking forward to making these. Looks great for brunch
Who ON EARTH uses dried herbs......?
A LOT of people ranging from (but not limited to) home cooks and chefs to avid gardeners and homesteaders who grow and dry their own herbs. Dried herbs are not only more economical when fresh herbs are not in season (currently in Sydney during peak winter a fresh bunch of Basil is $6.99), but in recipes that require less moisture and more intense flavour (like these fritters!) they work really well without sweating during cooking. You are of course welcome to use fresh herbs in this recipe if you like, I just feel dried herbs work better here. Cheers!