Carrot fritters with yoghurt sauce

On one of the last balmy days of March before the weather got cooler, I made these carrot fritters based on a supermarket magazine recipe.  They were so good that we have made them again twice in the last month.  They were excellent on April Fool's Day after the Easter feasting and they were great to adjust to use up leftovers from the crumb coating of a batch of tofu nuggets.

One of the best things about the recipe is that it is packed full  of carrots.  When you eat these fritters you are getting a good serve of vegetables.  Not like those wannabe fritter that are actually pancakes with the occasional piece of vegetable.  You can see this in the above photo of them frying.  It is all about the grated carrots with a modest amount of flours, eggs and seasoning to bind them.

The Coles supermarket recipe that we were following used some spices but I preferred to season with a teaspoon of seeded mustard.  We also ignored the direction by Coles to make a date mustard sauce to serve with the fritters. It seemed far simpler to serve them with the simple yoghurt and lemon sauce that accompanied Recipe Tin Eats Broccoli Fritters.  On our first night of the fritters, I served them with a brown rice salad, baby spinach and cherry tomatoes.

The second night I made the fritters, Sylvia chopped some parsley into the yoghurt sauce and we served them with potato salad, beetroot cabbage coleslaw and baby spinach.  They did not fry as evenly as the first night but still tasted so good.  They were lovely and soft under their crisp edges.

On the most recent night we planned to make the fritters, I went rogue with this recipe.  I had some leftover crumb coating from a batch of tofu nuggets that I did not want to go to waste so I substituted this for a lot of the flour and seasonings.  It worked well.  I also added some parmesan cheese which was also great.  In future I would like to try these with grated parsnips or zucchinis and maybe lightly steamed and finely chopped broccoli or cauliflower.  However in these days of crazy food prices, carrots are a great cheap vegetable that we always have on hand.  On this occasion we added more vegetables by mixing the yoghurt sauce with finely sliced spinach and our favourite mock tuna (chickpea) salad.  What's not to love about these easy, delicious and budget-friendly carrot fritters that are open to variations!

More fritters on Green Gourmet Giraffe blog:
Carrot and potato fritters
Corn fritters (gf)
Curried carrot fritters
Pea, quinoa and feta fritters (gf)
Pumpkin chickpea fritters (gf, v)

Carrot Fritters with Yoghurt Sauce
Adapted from Coles Magazine March 2024
Makes 6 fritters

400g carrots (3-4 medium carrots), grated
1/3 cup (50g) cornflour
1/3 cup (50g) plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 spring onion, sliced
1-2 garlic cloves, finely grated
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp seeded mustard
2 eggs
oil for frying

Mix all ingredients adding eggs last to bind everything together.  The carrots are the main ingredient here and need just enough batter to bind them.  Heat oil on medium high heat in a frypan (my preference is a cast iron frypan).  Drop batter into frypan, using a 1/3 cup to measure, and use spoon to flatten and shape.  Fry for 3-4 minutes on each side until it is golden brown with a bit of char.  Drain fritters on kitchen paper and serve with yoghurt sauce. 

Yoghurt sauce
From Recipe Tin Eats

1/4 cup plain yoghurt
2 tsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Mix together

Variations:

• Replace all or some of the carrot with other vegetables such as grated parsnips, zucchini or cabbage
• Plain flour is also known as all purpose flour.  Corn flour in Australia is the same as corn starch in USA.  Different flours can be used such as a gluten free flour mix instead of plain flour. 
• Spring onions can be replaced with chives or parsley or dried onion flakes.
• The garlic cloves can be replaced by dried garlic granules or powder.
• The teaspoon of seeded mustard can be replaced by a teaspoon of another seasoning paste or 1/2 teaspoon of a powdered seasoning.  I have a mexican seasoning powder I have used on one occasion or would consider a dukkah or a curry powder.
  
• If desired, add some parmesan or cheese of choice.  I added 1/4 cup of parmesan which added flavour without it being really cheesy. 
• I amended the recipe to use up leftover crumb coating from tofu nuggets - my crumb coating leftovers was made by mixing the leftover milk and flour and crumbs to make a crumbly mixture.  I used 1 1/3 cups of the mixture of seasoned crumb coating instead of the flours and seasonings.  I added 2 eggs, a few spoonfuls of flour, 1/4 cup finely grated parmesan and a pinch of salt and pepper.  It was fantastic.
• The yoghurt sauce is very simple and can be jazzed up as little or as much as you like.  If your energy is low, just use the plain yoghurt.  If you don't have lemon juice, add some vinegar instead.  We have tried parsley in it one time and finely sliced spinach another time.  Other addition to amp up the flavour could be some garlic or you can increase the vegetables with something like finely chopped cucumbers.  It all depends on taste and availability.
• I would suggest making these fritters gluten free with gf flour or vegan with egg substitutes such as 2 tbsp chia seeds and 6 tbsp water, or 6 tbsp aqua faba.
  
• These fritters can be eaten plain for a snack or light meal, in a sandwich with some coleslaw or salad vegetables, on a breakfast plate with eggs, mushrooms, tomato, beans and greens, or as a main meal with lots of nice salads or salad vegetables on the side.
  
  

On the stereo:
This is going to hurt (original soundtrack) - Jarvis Cocker