Tom’s Kitchen: Quick and Easy Zucchini Fritters

Tom Philpott

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

September in Austin is a slightly awkward time at the farmers market. Months of brutal heat has finished off most of the summer harvest, but the fall goods like kale, collards, and winter squash aren’t quite ready yet. One thing you can still get in abundance is zucchini, which I love—but at this point, I can’t do any more grilled, sauteed or roasted zucchini slices. So when I picked up a few beautiful ones recently, all I could think to do with them was grate them into fritters.

Fritters sometimes strike me as too fussy. But doing it this time reminded me just how quick and easy they are—and delicious, too. Served over a salad—even a kale salad—with a glass of white wine or lager, they’re a great late-summer light dinner.

Zucchini Fritters
2 medium zucchini
2 eggs
1 teaspoon sea salt
A fistful of parsley, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed, peeled, and minced fine
A good lashing of freshly ground black pepper
A pinch of red-hot chile clakes
1/2 cup flour (hippie that I am, I used whole wheat)
Olive oil, for pan frying

Belle of the September market: zephyr zucchini Belle of the September market: zephyr zucchini Using a box grater, grate zucchini into a large bowl. Move the shredded zucchini to one side of the bowl, tilt the bowl, and give the zucchini a squeeze to press out excess water. Discard the water. Put the zucchini back to the bottom of the bowl and spread it to the edges, creating a hollow in the middle. Crack the eggs into the hollow, add the rest of the ingredients except for the flour and cooking oil, and whisk the eggs with a fork, roughly incorporating everything, until the egg is uniformly yellow. With a wooden spoon, gently stir everything together. Spread the flour over the mixture evenly—to a avoid lumps—and gently stir in to combine.

Heat a large, heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat and add enough oil to generously cover the bottom. When the oil is very hot, using a table spoon, drop in mounds of the zucchini mixture, pressing gently. Avoid letting them touch. Cook until they’re well browned, and flip. When they’re browned on both sides, they’re done.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate