Zucchini-Corn Fritters
My mom picked 22 zucchini out of her garden on Saturday, and at least half of them are bigger than my arm. True story. There’s a lot of zucchini bread happening in our family this week. However, one cannot live on zucchini bread alone. Sure, it’s easy and a classic, but it’s certainly useful to have some other zucchini recipes on hand for when situations such as this arise. Some of my favorites include beer-battered zucchini fries and zucchini squares, and coming from an Italian family who makes countless fritters for Christmas Eve every year, I absolutely could not pass up this zucchini-corn fritter recipe.
On Christmas Eve, my grandma always fried up different varieties of fritters – apple, corn and cauliflower. Once in a awhile, she made broccoli, but everyone’s favorite is corn. I had never even thought of adding zucchini to a fritter recipe, but it makes perfect sense! The zucchini flavor is so mild, it’s the perfect accompaniment to the corn and a fabulous way to use up all that extra zucchini! The use of cornmeal gives these fritters an extra oomph of corn flavor and a wonderful crunch. (I used course-ground cornmeal, which are the yellow flecks you see in the photos.)
While I usually associate fritters with Christmas Eve dinners, I’m happy to introduce them to my summer menus!
One year ago: Chocolate Cream Pie
Two years ago: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars
Three years ago: How to Make Pate a Choux
Six years ago: Miniature Italian Meatloaves
Zucchini-Corn Fritters
Ingredients
- 2 medium zucchini, shredded
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- ½ (0.5) small onion, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 ears of corn, kernels cut off
- ½ cup (79.5 g) yellow cornmeal
- ½ cup (62.5 g) all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon (0.75 teaspoon) kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon (0.25 teaspoon) black pepper
- ¾ cup (180 ml) buttermilk
- 1 egg
- Vegetable or canola oil, for frying
- Salt, to taste
Instructions
- In a small bowl, toss the shredded zucchini with ½ teaspoon kosher salt. Set aside for 10 minutes, then wrap in a clean kitchen towel or a triple layer of paper towels, and squeeze to release excess moisture. Set aside.
- Place the butter in a large nonstick skillet (I used my Le Creuset 3½-quart braiser) set over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion has softened, about 4 minutes. Stir in the corn and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the cornmeal, flour, baking soda, kosher salt and pepper. In a second medium-sized bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and egg until well combined. Add the corn mixture and zucchini, and stir to combine. Add the cornmeal mixture, and gently mix just until everything comes together.
- Add enough oil to the skillet to come to a depth of about â…›-inch. Set the pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, drop the batter into the pan using a 1/4 cup measure. Use the back of the measuring cup to flatten the batter into a round. Cook for about 3-4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain and sprinkle with salt while still hot. Repeat with remaining batter (you may need to add additional oil as you get to the last few).
Notes
- The fritters can be made up to 2 hours ahead of time. Reheat them in a 375 degrees F oven on a wire rack set inside of a baking sheet.
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
Just made them. Â I used stone ground corn from our grist mill in town. Â I even bought buttermilk!! Â These are excellent. Â Will definitely make again.Â
Just made these. I used 3/4 cup of frozen sweet corn, Bob’s Red Mill Polenta for the cornmeal, and Bob’s gluten free baking flour. So you can make these in the winter and you can make them gluten free and they are delicious!
Made these yesterday – – -they were wonderful!!!
Thank you so much for sharing the recipe.
Hi Michelle. I’m sorry to be confusing! What I meant was, how many cups of shredded zucchini should be used? Thank you so much.
Hi Tori, I would estimate about 1.5 cups.
Hi! Wondering what the end measurements were for how much zucchini to use? I have corn and zucchini from my garden. Can’t wait to make this! Thank you!
Hi Tori, I’m not sure what you mean by end measurement? You should use two medium-sized zucchini.
I wonder how these would taste if you used mushrooms instead of Zucchini.
I absolutely loved these! I made them while on vacay with my sister and my niece. My sister loved them too! I love ’em so much that I’m making them for my birthday dinner this weekend!
These were delicious!! What a great use of late summer veggies. Unfortunately I had a bit of a mishap making these…as I was flipping one of the fritters, a kernel of corn literally exploded and splashed hot oil on my arm. Luckily its a pretty minor (but painful!) burn. Just wondering if that was just a freak thing or if kernel explosions were common in making these and it was just bad luck that it happened as my hand was nearby? Or maybe I used too much oil? Too hot? Anyway, these were delicious and easy!
Ouch! So sorry about your burn! I haven’t had any kernels explode on me, knock on wood!
hubby and I love fritters – I recently made some w/yellow squash and zucchini – hubs couldn’t get enough – will be trying yours next, but tomorrow is a crab saute with asparagus and Jasmine rice. W-D had crab claw meat on sale and bought 6 lbs
Oh yum! I love zucchini fritters! Can’t wait to try your recipe out! Looks delish! :-)
Hi Michelle
What brand of course-ground cornmeal did you use in this recipe. Also, when corn season is over, can you use frozen corn in this recipe. If so, thawed or unthawed.
Hi Jackie, I used Bob’s Red Mill. I think frozen corn would be fine; I would probably throw it in frozen, knowing that it doesn’t need to be cooked during the saute step.
just figured out the whole comment thing… I am trying to figure out per your response how to use my fresh frozen tart pie cherries as i will have to thaw them and drain juice etc in order to mix into the ingredients.. I didnt flash freeze and then bag them , i bagged and froze 4-6 cups at a time. Wont do that again but short on time that day- I usually freeze the berries then bag for easy use later..i am somewhat new at cherry pies. what is your advice considering how i froze them?
thank you ,
denise
Hi Denise, The recipe for the pie states using frozen, so I would just take them from the bag (however you froze them) and use them that way. I have not used frozen cherries for the cherry pie you are referencing, so unfortunately I can only give you advice based on the headnote of the original recipe.
As soon as I saw these I had to make them. So I did. Last night. OMG they are delicious!! Thank you, thank you for sharing this. I love zucchini but my husband swears he doesn’t like it so I “hide” it in different dishes. These are perfect. And guess what, he ate 4 of them!
how much shredded zucchini, more or less, do you wind up with? I have a monster one from my garden and would love to make these.
Hi Jean, I didn’t measure it, but if you have a monster zucchini, you could probably just use that one.
Thanks for the response. I grated most of the monster after taking out the seeds and it filled my f/p bowl, so around 11 cups. definitely too much. I had to double the flour mixture. But we really loved them. One tip I have it to use a ricer to squeeze out the moisture, it works great on zukes, cukes (for tzakiki) and spinach. Thanks again!
I hope you have tiny arms otherwise that’s a whole lotta zucchini! These look delicious. My zucchini hating fiance might even eat them, which would be no small feat!
Yummy! Corn and zucchini goes so well and so summery!!
Is that about 2 cups of corn?? Do you have a good recipe for corn fritters? I love those with maple syrup drizzled over them.
Hi Tammy, I think 2 cups is about right. My grandma never wrote down her corn fritter recipe, but perhaps this New Year’s Eve I’ll have to measure everything and get it documented!
Love this idea! I have lots of zucchini in my fridge right now, and am wondering what else I can do with it!
I’m so jealous of your zucchini, too bad you can’t just send the excess to those of us who would love it. My zucchini burned up in the New Mexico sun this year, sigh. Looks like a yummy recipe!
i think even as picky as i am that i would be able to handle zucchini fritters.
my mom does a zucchini, corn, and tomato stir fry that she tops with mozzarella that the non-picky members of the family devour, in case you’re in search of another savory way to work through those zucchini.
These look so great I want to make them right now! I’ve never made fritters before because I don’t do a lot of frying, but these are so enticing that this is a great place to start.
We make fritters all the time but never any corn. This sounds delish !
Just made these – super yum!! <3 Crispy, crunchy outside… light, fluffy inside. And the corn/zucchini combo is divine! a great pairing! Thanks for the recipe… It's a summer keeper!
Great use of zucchini!! Love it!
DO you think that I can make these with Almond milk to make them vegan?
How do you substitute the egg? It seems like the egg as a binder would be harder to replace than the milk?
Hi Laurie, I’m not sure how that would work, as the buttermilk works with the baking soda to give the fritters a bit of a “lift”. If you try it, let me know how it turns out.
Yum Yum Yum – cannot wait to try these!!! Thanks!
I only wish our zucchini had done that good. We got 1. These look great!
These look super yummy! We are having zucchini overload from MI gardens as well… :)
They look absolutely delicious. Yum!
I’m so jealous of your fresh zucchini! These fritters look so golden brown and delicious!
These look delicious.I will have to put them on my list of thigs to try this week as I just bought some fresh corn and et a few zucchini gifted to be froma friend’s garden. Also, I clicked on your site Instagram icon and up came the most adorable photo set of your two fur babies. Duke is such a little furball…that one shot of him curled up next to Einstein is priceless. It looks like the two will become buddies in no time. How can Einstein resist all that fluffy cuteness? You and your husband must have had a super fun weekend.
I LOVE anything in fritter form, especially these great late summer vegetables. Looks delicious!
Oh, these look divine… <3 I think I'll be trying these this week.. :-)
I love fritters for a quick and easy meal! Since I cannot get enough corn right now, I’m all over these!
These look wonderful! Living in Germany, where potatos seem to be included in just about everyting, I can imagine shredding some potato into these as well. I’ll have to try both variations. Yum!
A recipe perfect for me and my family. I just made one small change, I add some hemp seeds, we learned to put it almost in every dish.
I love how golden and pretty these are! I would love them. Last year about this time I made some zucchini-carrot fritters. I’ve never tried with corn though. Great idea!
That is some big ol zucchini! These fritters (I love that word) look great, I love the corn addition!