Back to top

Vegetable and Cheese Fritters with Chimichurri (Video)

Stop Food Waste Blog

Vegetable and Cheese Fritters with Chimichurri (Video)

Feb 13, 2023

Stop Food Waste Blog

In this video Marie will show you how to transform leftover and forgotten vegetables & cheese into versatile and mouth watering pancakes that you will never get tired of eating.

To take the pancakes from an A to an A+ she makes a chimichurri sauce using ingredients that often get discarded like radish tops and olive brine.

Marie Brennan graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in Dietetics. She lives in the Bay Area and works as an educator, private chef, and culinary consultant. She has a healthy eating blog where you can find the tasty recipes below as well as many more.


RECIPES:

Vegetable and Cheese Fritters
Yields: ~15 fritters

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 Tbsp olive oil plus extra for frying
  • 1 large onion, saute slice
  • 1 tsp salt, divided
  • ~3 cups of misfit vegetables (see NOTES), finely chopped
  • 2⁄3 cup vegetable stock or water
  • 2⁄3 cup chickpea flour
  • 1 egg
  • Black pepper
  • 1 cup misfit cheeses (see NOTES), grated

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium low heat. Add onion and ½ tsp of salt. Saute until translucent, about 10 minutes.
  2. Add any uncooked vegetables, the remaining ½ tsp of salt, stir and cover. Cook until the vegetables are tender, 3-5 minutes depending on what you are using. Remove cover and continue to cook until excess moisture has evaporated. Set aside to cool slightly.
  3. In a large bowl whisk water, chickpea flour, egg and a few grinds of black pepper together. Fold in cheese, cooled vegetable mixture and any other vegetables you may be using.
  4. Heat a griddle or a large non-stick or cast iron pan over medium heat. Once hot, add oil and ladle the batter in ¼ cup increments. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the edges turn opaque. Flip and continue to cook for an additional 2 minutes.
  5. Repeat with the rest of the batter and serve warm with the Chimichurri.

 

Chimichurri
Yields: ~1 ½ c chimichurri

INGREDIENTS

  • ~2 cups coarsely chopped greens such as radish tops, beet greens, parsley
  • 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
  • 2 Tbsp olive or pickle brine
  • 2 Tbsp fresh oregano leaves
  • 3 large garlic cloves, minced
  • 1-1 1⁄2 tsp salt
  • 1⁄2 cup olive oil
  • 1-2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Place all ingredients into a food processor except for olive oil and chile flakes.
  2. Pulse until incorporated but still chunky.
  3. Add oil and chile flakes and pulse once or twice. The oil should not be fully mixed in.
  4. Serve alongside or drizzled onto the fritters.


NOTES
● Ideas for “misfit vegetables” include: leftover roasted vegetables, grating the lonely sweet potato in the pantry or the ½ packet of spinach rattling around your freezer.
● Ideal candidates for “misfit cheeses” include cheddar that is starting to grow mold (cut that part off!), colby that didn’t get stored properly and dried out a bit (trim those parts!) and the remnants of your holiday cheese platter.


More recipes, cooking tips, and videos from 18 Reasons:


Learn more about 18 Reasons in this article from Edible East Bay.

18 Reasons is a Chef Partner of the Stop Food Waste campaign. They are a nonprofit cooking school on a mission to empower our community with the confidence and creativity needed to buy, cook, and eat good food every day.