Vegan Zucchini & Carrot Fritters With Golden Sour Cream Sauce

Zucchini and carrots work together to make unbelievably delicious fritters.

I've always wanted to make fritters. Always. So alas, I have ventured into this territory leaving behind fears of sizzling hot oil hitting my bare arms and sans a deep fryer. Everyone, a plain ole skillet works just fine. So whilst Googling vegan recipes and remembering the lone green plastic bag wrapped zucchini sitting in the fridge, I stumbled upon earthlyfest.com's impressive spread of vegetable fritters. There is a recipe for both zucchini and carrot fritters, but yours truly decided to combine the two.
So I also neglected to get a new grater and decided to slice veggies thinly by hand. Lots of work and very time consuming. Luckily, I wasn't completely starving when performing this task. A grater is a necessary thing more so than a deep fryer. It turned out pretty tasty in the end- all crispy like a fritter should be and the tangy sauce complemented the dish just like imagined. Perfectly.

Vegan Zucchini & Carrot Fritters With Golden Sour Cream Sauce Ingredients and Preparation

oil for frying (used olive oil here)

1 zucchini
2 carrots
1 red onion onion
1 handful parsley
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 heaping tablespoons panko breadcrumbs
1/2 cup soy milk
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon Italian seasonings
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon red crushed pepper

Sour Cream Sauce

1/2 cup sour cream
2 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Heat up skillet.

Mix together "grated" zucchini, carrots, red onion, and parsley.

Gradually stir in flour, bread crumbs, soy milk, garlic salt, Italian seasonings, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. At this point, I added a generous amount of olive oil to warmed skillet- a good 1/3 maybe. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of batter and drop into the oil. They should sizzle immediately. If not, your skillet isn't hot enough.

Since I used a small skillet, fried up two at a time, leaving a wide gap between them. They are ready to be flipped over when edges are browned. Timed about 2-3 minutes. Lay them on napkins to remove excess oil.

Dried and ready to be sauced.

Stir sour cream with nutritional yeast, turmeric, garlic salt, and white pepper.

A sprig of parsley garnish.

Time to dig in!

Vegan Crumbly Chickpea, Walnut, & Tempeh Fritters

These little thingamabobs are perfect sandwich filling or warm salad topper.

Gotta love food experimentation.
I've always said that the kitchen became another form of studio- food ingredients definitely embodying a painter's palette.
Chickpeas, walnuts, and tempeh sounded like an ideal combination.
They were supposed to be patties, but fell apart and made me laugh. Okay, I wasn't truly laughing at the time. In fact, rather screaming and cringing as hot grease jumped on my skin- hurts like the devil!
However, I loved the flavor and what managed to be achieved. Walnuts bring delicious rustic meatiness and crisp layer, chickpeas have this amazing taste that is indescribably delicious especially whenever mixed with curry flare, and tempeh is this chewy, diverse magician that soaks up everything. I would love to make these again and add a bit of rolled oats or quinoa to make them sync together better.
These crumbling funky fritters are great between two slices of bread ala sloppy joe style topped with lettuce, tomato, onion or served on top of pasta, rice, quinoa, or any other grain.

Vegan Crumbly Chickpea, Walnut, & Tempeh Fritters Ingredients and Preparation

olive oil
1/2 cup walnuts, finely grounded
1 can chickpeas, drained
4 oz. tempeh, half a standard package, crumbled
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika

Grind walnuts. Mix with chickpeas, tempeh, and spices.

Pan fry each side in heated olive oil for 3-5 minutes. Watch out for that hot grease. It's not playing!

Most of it stayed stagnant, but wanted to collapse in certain places.

Served with a side of pasta & homemade tomato sauce.

Saucy sideways closeup.

The fritters crumble further, making for a perfect dinner.