Feta Quinoa Zucchini Fritters are my first experiment with these cute seeds. Are they seeds? Not sure, but they do like seeds of a plant. I absolutely LOVE them!
Unlike bulgur, rice or lentils, quinoa never bores you. You will probably find it hard to stop once you start eating something based on this amazing food!
Quinoa zucchini fritters are the first but will never be the last trial for me. Quinoa is not a common food in Turkey and you can find it just in big markets in big cities. So when I saw it in the biggest supermarket in our neighborhood, I didn’t think twice to buy two bags. I didn’t know what to make with it, no single idea! But I did know it is very healthy and I just didn’t want to miss it.
I searched it on pinterest, which is my favorite social platform and saw that it is possible to make fritters with quinoa. So I immediately decided to make our favorite zucchini fritters with quinoa. It would be an alternative to our gluten-free zucchini fritters with cornmeal.
I saw white quinoa everywhere on the web, but the ones I bought were red and I think mine look even nicer with that color. I was so excited about cooking with this ancient looking food. Some recipes calls for soaking quinoa before cooking, but I tasted it raw and it wasn’t that hard, so why bother soaking first? I just boiled it with water on the lowest heat until it absorbs all the water and then waited for a while covered to let it rise a bit more. I was mesmerized by the earthy smell coming from the pot and started to think on different recipes I could make next time.
I either use cornmeal or whole wheat or all purpose flour when making fritters, but didn’t use any of these this time. I wanted to test if it would hold the batter or not. You can see the result in the pictures. Well, the batter was not as thick as regular fritters but they hold quite well. You just need to treat them gently when flipping over in the pan. These quinoa zucchini fritters are much lighter than regular fritters, so you can eat more.
My feta quinoa zucchini fritters are not very thin because I wanted to have some moistness in the center. If you want your fritters completely crispy, make them thinner.
These are super yummy both warm and cold. You can cover the leftovers with plastic wrap and keep for 2 days in the refrigerator. Enjoy these as a breakfast food, side dish, snack or picnic food!
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📖 Recipe
Feta Quinoa Zucchini Fritters
Amazingly light fritters with quinoa, feta and zucchini.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 10 1x
- Category: Snack
- Method: Frying
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- ½ cup quinoa
- 2 zucchinis, grated
- 3 eggs
- 5 tablespoon crumbled feta
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
- Salt
- ¼ cup olive oil for fyring
- 1 cup plain yogurt to serve with
Instructions
- Cook quinoa in 1 and ¼ cup of water. Bring it to boil and let it simmer covered over the lowest heat until it absorbs all the water. Let it cool before preparing the fritter batter.
- Sprinkle a little salt on grated zucchini and wait for 5-10 minutes so that it releases its juice. Squeeze in your hands.
- Whisk eggs well. Fold in crumbled feta and stir.
- Add in grated and squeezed zucchini, chopped fresh dill and salt. Stir.
- Add in cooked quinoa and combine them well.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet.
- Drop one tablespoon of batter in the skillet and gently press on the batches with a spatula. Fry for about 5 minutes over medium heat until golden and flip over. Fry for about 5 minutes and take them on a paper towel.
- Serve with plain yogurt.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 147
- Sugar: 2.4 g
- Sodium: 135.9 mg
- Fat: 10.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 8.1 g
- Protein: 6.8 g
- Cholesterol: 63.7 mg
Keywords: zucchini, quinoa, zucchini fritters
Jen says
Can these be frozen?
Zerrin & Yusuf says
Hi Jen,
Never tried freezing them. But they should be fine when you freeze them cooked and cooled.
Maja Pawłowska says
Could you swap quinoa for another grain instead? I usually don't like quinoa in salads so I'm not sure if i'd like this.
Yusuf says
Hi Maja, it tastes way better in these fritters than in salads as they are fried. But if you still don't want to give it a chance, you can use flour as we do in our regular zucchini fritters recipe. Hope this helps.
Melanie says
Your recipe didn't give how many calories per fritter.
Valerie Boese says
Love your quinoa recipes ideas, I plan to try them soon.
Yvonne Smith says
I was introduced to quinoa a couple of years ago on a food course I went on, but I've never used it since and I have a packet of it sat in the cupboard. The thought of having to soak it overnight has always put me off using it as I keep forgetting! However, I'm going to dig it out the cupboard and give these a go. Thanks for sharing.
Nicole says
Sounds delicious! Is the feta a necessity to keep the cakes together? I don't eat a lot of cheese....
Zerrin says
You can just use little or leave it out. It's not a must in this recipe. We love it with zucchini, that's why we always make fritters with it.
dina says
great use of quinoa!
Thalia @ butter and brioche says
never made quinoa fritters before.. definitely need to try the recipe out!