Fritters with chickpea flour and vegetables

I was introduced to these chickpea flour and vegetable fritters when asking a friend for an egg substitute to make a frittata, and actually, I discovered that there are many vegan recipes that replace eggs with chickpea flour. Anyway, these fritters are also great for ‘disguising’ legumes and/or vegetables to kids, or for cooking chickpeas in a different way. Moreover, they’re extremely easy and it takes no time to make them! In this version we used zucchini as this is a seasonal ingredient for the summer. But of course, you can experiment with fritters using all kinds of vegetables. In winter you can replace basil and mint with parsley and use broccoli or cauliflower (as in the photo). Later, you can use spring onions and peas, or asparagus. Just experiment a little!

Ingredients

• 1 cup of chickpea flour
• 1 cup of water
• 1 medium sized Romanesco zucchini or courgette
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 clove garlic
• peel of 1 untreated lemon
• a handful of basil leaves
• a handful of mint leaves
• 250 ml plain yoghurt
• Salt and pepper to taste
• some fresh chili pepper or pink pepper (optional)
• seed oil to fry

Method

1. Wash the zucchini and grate them with a large-hole grater. Salt them and leave them to drain for half an hour in a colander. After this time, using your hands, squeeze them well to drain all the water and set them aside.
2. Mix the chickpea flour with the water in a bowl until you get a smooth batter and leave to stand for 10 minutes.
3. Add the zucchini and the finely cut garlic to the batter and mix well.
4. Add one tablespoon of olive oil, half of the lemon zest and half of the chopped basil and mint leaves. Add salt and pepper to taste.
5. In a rather large frying pan put a little oil and pour the batter in spoonfuls.
6. Fry over medium to low heat. When a crust has formed, gently turn the fritters over and fry on the other side. They should be golden brown, which takes about about four minutes for each side.
7. When they are golden brown, drain them on kitchen paper.
8. Mix the yoghurt with the remaining lemon zest, chopped basil and mint leaves. Add some lemon juice and salt, and either fresh chili or pink pepper to taste.
9. Serve the fritters with the yoghurt sauce on the side.

Tips

• In some variations of this recipe the zucchini are briefly fried in a pan, together with the garlic. I prefer using the raw zucchini, as this leaves the fritters a bit fresher and is also quicker.
• If you use broccoli or other vegetables you cannot grate, chop them finely so that they become tender when frying.
• Fritters with chickpea flour and vegetables remain tasty both hot and cold and are a great dish to take along for a picnic..