When my daughter was a baby, she ate any and all baby food vegetables we sent her way. I was so excited and smug. Oh look, my kid eats her veggies!
Well, fast forward to my now 3 1/2 year old and I’m lucky if I get one serving of vegetables in her a week.
These veggie fritters are one way to get a few non-fruit items into her. I’m not advocating deep frying all foods just to get a child to eat them, but it’s one option that might make it a bit easier to be on the way to that daily recommended amount.
These work well as an appetizer for parties and summer barbecues. You can make them a little larger to serve as a side dish as well. They are great dipped in your favorite dipping sauce, and I’m including one of my favorite sauces here, one of which will be familiar to any southerners, especially Mississippians – Comeback Sauce. Comeback sauce is similar to thousand island dressing, but has more spice. It’s mayonnaise based, and there are many variations of it.
I made two versions of fritters, one with kernel corn and one with zucchini. You could substitute almost any vegetable you can imagine here. Squash, peas, parsnips, carrots, even cauliflower or broccoli could work here. For the adults, you could make a batch laced with some jalapenos too.
Kids and adults alike will enjoy their veggies even more when dipping is involved, don’t you agree?
Veggie Fritters
- 1 cup self rising flour
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup milk
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 3/4 cup of vegetables (I used corn and zucchini*)
Step One: Preheat oil in deep fryer to 350. If you don’t have a deep fryer, heat oil in a frying pan on medium high until hot, but not smoking.
Step Two: In a bowl, combine flour with sugar, salt and pepper. Mix in the egg, butter and milk. Stir well.
Step Three: Add in the vegetables and stir to combine. Your batter should not be runny. You want a fairly thick batter here. Like this:
Step Four: Drop batter by rounded teaspoon fulls into hot oil. Fry until golden brown, turning with a spoon or fork when needed.
Step Five: Drain on paper towel lined plate.
*If using zucchini, grate and salt zucchini and let it sit in a colander for about 30 minutes to draw out some of the moisture. Then gather into a clean dishtowel and wring out all excess water.
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Comeback Sauce
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1/8 cup chili sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon hot sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon Cajun seasoning
- 1/8 cup of ketchup
- 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Step One: Put all ingredients in small bowl and mix well.
Step Two: Let sit, covered in refrigerator several hours, overnight is even better.
