These baked Zucchini, Corn Fritters with Cottage Cheese and herbs are a great way to consume more vegetables and protein. The fritters are baked until crispy, golden brown on the outside but still soft & tender on the inside.
I grew up in a tiny corner of the Mediterranean, in Albania. Our cuisine involves using lots of seasonal ingredients and we often combine them to make fritters or salads that might seem unusual. Often times these recipes don’t even have names because they’re just various leftovers being put together to make something new.
Feel free to check out my Cauliflower Fritters or Baked Mint Meatballs which use similar concepts to the ones for this recipe.
Why make these fritters?
These fritters are baked which requires less oil and less breadcrumbs/flour than the fried counterparts.
The other reason is that it’s a great way to add more vegetables and more protein to your family’s diet. We over-indulged a bit this summer and as soon as my kids started school again (here in FL we start school mid August), I decided to add more vegetables, fruits and protein to their daily nutrition.
These fritters are easy to pack into their Bentgo lunch boxes with a sandwich and some fruit. I personally love the fritters as a snack or for brunch time.
Let’s talk about ingredients!
These are the ingredients I use to make these zucchini and corn fritters with cottage cheese.
- 2 zucchini (here in US they tend to be bigger then in Europe, so use 3 if they’re on the smaller side)
- 2 cups frozen corn kernels
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- 1 small onion or half a large one
- 0.5 cup to 1 cup breadcrumbs (or flour)
- 1 egg
- salt/pepper to taste
- parsley and mint (fresh)
- dry herbs like oregano, thyme or za’atar
How to make these fritters?
Grate the zucchinis and use a cheese cloth or flour sack to squeeze the liquid out of them. It’s really impressive to see how much juice you can squeeze out.
Sonila’s tips for this recipe
Cooking with vegetables leads to more variability then when baking pies or cakes. Vegetables have more liquid and that can change the balance of the recipe. While I do squeeze the juice out of the grated zucchini, I have noticed that occasionally I need more or less breadcrumbs to put the fritters together so they don’t fall apart.
- Add half a cup of breadcrumbs but you might have to add up to a whole cup depending on how well you squeezed the zucchini out.
- I have only used frozen corn with this recipe. If you were to use fresh corn, maybe parboil it for 1-2 minutes and let the kernels cool before you incorporate into fritters mix.
- If you want to fry the fritters instead of bake, drench them in flour before frying to preserve their shape. Use a neutral oil with high smoke point.
Zucchini, Corn Fritters with Cottage Cheese
Equipment
- 1 vegetable grater
Ingredients
- 2 zucchini
- 1 cup corn
- 1 cup cottage cheese
- 1 cup breadcrumbs start with a half cup and increase as needed
- 1 small onion
- 1 cup fresh chopped parsley
- 5-7 mint leaves
- 1 egg
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 0.5 tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Line up a baking sheet with parchment paper and pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Grate zucchini over a bowl lined with cheesecloth. Once done grating, pull the sides of the cheese cloth together and squeeze so you can remove as much liquid as you can from the zucchini. Pulse frozen corn in the food processor for few seconds. You want it to have a mix consistency.
- Add zucchini to an empty glass bowl. Add corn, cottage cheese. Chop onion, parsley and mint and add it in. Add salt, pepper, breadcrumbs, egg and herbs of your choice like oregano etc. Mix everything really well with a spatula or wooden spoon.
- Form patties with your hands and place them in baking sheet about an inch apart.
- Bake for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Let it cool down a little bit then remove from baking tray and serve with your favorite dip:). Enjoy!
Notes
- These zucchini and corn fritters are perfect for lunch boxes.
- Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
Yes you can! Actually the original fritters of any kind are fried. However, when it comes to zucchini fritters I prefer making them baked instead of fried. The main benefit of baking them is that you’ll use less breadcrumbs or less flour to make them.
Yes you certainly can!! We tend to use all king of leftover vegetables and combine them into fritters with eggs and breadcrumbs.
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Let me know in comments if you have any questions, feel free to tag me in social media with your version of this recipe. Thank you for reading my blog:).
Additional Recipes
Fee free to check out some of my other recipes:
- Cottage Cheese recipes: Cottage Cheese Dip or Puff Pastry Tarts with Berries
- Zucchini recipes: Cold Yogurt and Zucchini Soup, Stuffed Zucchini and Summer Squash
- Corn recipes: Peruvian Corn and Rice, Corn Casserole with Spinach
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