Corn fritters are a super healthy eating food – crispy, sweet, savoury and with a lovely yielding texture all at the same time, they are prefect for serving as a light lunch or dinner Serve them up in pitta bread with salad, as they are with some salsa or as part of a main meal with some grilled chicken and lots of vegetables on the side.
Corn fritters are usually pretty high in fat (so bad for weight loss), as they are fried in hot oil or deep fried, but if you fry them in cooking spray or cook them in a hot oven as is described in this recipe, you cut out much of the fat but keep most of the flavour.
Because they aren’t deep fried, they lose their crispiness once they reach room temperature, but if you eat them right away when they are piping hot from the frying pan they will stay nice and crispy. Here’s how to make deliciously crunchy corn fritters.
You’ll Need:
- 310g sweetcorn, canned and drained
- 2 small shallots
- Small handful freshly chopped chives
- Small handful freshly chopped parsley
- 1 garlic clove
- 70g plain wholemeal flour
- 70g ground cornmeal
- 110ml water (or more, or less)
- 1 tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. black pepper
Directions:
- Pat the sweetcorn using some kitchen paper to dry it off a little bit. Slice the shallots in half and then finely mince them. Crush the garlic clove using a garlic mincer.
- In a large bowl, combine the flours, then add the sweetcorn, shallots, chives, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper. Stir to combine and evenly distribute all the ingredients.
- Add the water, a little at a time, until you have a batter that’s fluid but still thick enough to scoop up with a spoon or your fingers.
- Heat a non-stick heavy skillet and spritz with cooking spray. Once hot, drop rounded tablespoons of the batter (or use your hands) onto the hot skillet. Leave enough space in between them so that they don’t stick together.
- Cook the fritters until golden brown underneath, a couple of minutes, then very carefully flip over using a spatula and cook until golden brown on the other side and cooked all the way through. The finished fritters should be soft and fluffy in the middle.
Variations
Although these fritters are lovely as they are, as they’re a little garlicky and herby, it’s nice to add extra ingredients to change things up a bit once in a while. A finely minced red chilli would lend just the right amount of spice to these fritters – or you could add a tablespoon of smoked or sweet paprika to give them a deep, rich flavour.
You could also use spring onion instead of shallot to give these fritters a stronger, more pronounced onion flavour. Red onion would also be a nice substitute and would lend an excellent bit of colour. For curried fritters, add 1tsp. of curry powder or 1 tsp. of curry paste to the basic batter mixture. You could even make these into sweet corn fritters – omit the herbs, garlic, salt, pepper, shallots and garlic and instead add a little cinnamon, nutmeg and a tbsp of honey.
This recipe makes 4 servings. Calories per serving: 193.
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