If you’ve been following along with our recipes this CSA season, you might have noticed we have a mild obsession with fritters. It’s an easy dinner year round. Grate any vegetable, mix with flour, egg, and baking powder, pan fry, serve with a creamy sauce. Add a salad and dinner is on the table fast. These fritters break a few of the traditional rules…it actually took me two tries to get it right. Typically with a fritter all of the water is squeezed out of the vegetable before mixing it into a batter. With spaghetti squash, squeezing it takes away the fluffiness and makes it look like the pulpy part of the squash that gets composted. Draining the water in a strainer turned out to be the best solution for gently removing as much water as possible. The best part about spaghetti squash is it’s basically pre-shredded, just bake it and scoop out of the shell.
Place the flesh of the squash into a strainer over a bowl and gently press out as much water as you can before mixing in the rest of the fritter ingredients.
Pan-fry in oil. Don’t be afraid to let the fritters get brown and toasty, it’s just the cheese browning. In keeping with the spaghetti theme I served these with a simple marinara sauce (from the freezer) and finely grated parmesan.
Spaghetti Squash Fritters
1 medium sized spaghetti squash, sliced in half, seeds removed
1 cup finely grated parmesan
1/2 cup all purpose flour (whole wheat or gluten free flours will work fine)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
as much fresh pepper as you like
1 grated garlic clove
1 egg lightly beaten
oil for frying
Marinara Sauce and Fresh grated parmesan to serve
Preheat oven to 350°F. Poke holes in the skin of the spaghetti squash with a fork. Place cut side down on a baking sheet and bake until flesh easily comes out with a fork 45 – 60 minutes. When squash is cool enough to handle scoop flesh of squash into a strainer placed over a bowl. Drain as much water off the squash as you can.
Use a fork to mix together the fritter batter. Gently mix the cheese, garlic, salt, pepper, and squash together. Then add the rest of the ingredients. Fry in batches over medium high heat until golden brown.
