Disclaimer: I was so enchanted by these Zucchini Fritters with Poached Eggs, I’m afraid they’ve demanded somewhat of a picture-happy post, so be prepared! But who could blame me?? I mean, zucchini combined with red peppers, sweet onions, flax-seed, cashew meal, and feta, baked to a crispy perfection, then topped with honey lime chipotle sauce and a poached egg with its glorious runny yolk…see, just thinking about it causes me to write huge run-on sentences! I could seriously eat this whole stack of fritters and still be looking for more! My tummy may regret it later, but my taste buds would be in sheer bliss.
Lucky for Josh, I opted not to eat the entire stack and instead shared a few with him and stuck the rest back for leftovers. ~sigh~ Love leftovers.
The full story behind these fritters is that I tried to lightly fry them the first round, using a little coconut oil. I chose not to use a lot in an effort to keep the fat content to a minimum. But…of course with the lack of oil, they didn’t crisp up, nor hold together well…thus resulting in tasty, but not so pretty fritters. Needless to say I was bummed.
Bummed… but not defeated. The next evening started Round Two. I made {extra} sure I got all the water out of the zucchini and other veggies, then upped the amount of flax-seed and cashew meal in hopes of creating a fritter that held together better. Rather than frying, this time I nixed the oil altogether and baked them! Outcome? Not perfect, but good enough for me! They are not as crispy as those that are deep-fried, but they held together much better, while being baked to a pretty golden color and had even less fat than the ones I made the previous night. Score!
Plus, it gave me another opportunity to practice my “poaching eggs” skills. After a little research, I discovered a few helpful tricks. Many of you may be poached eggs experts {you’re welcome for not saying eggs-perts, it was hard}, but for those newbies like myself, here are a few tips:
Tips For Poaching An Egg:
- Add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to your pot of water.
- Once water reaches a boiling point, turn the temperature down just enough so water is at a smooth simmer.
- Add your egg to a sieve and slowly drop it into the water, then use a spoon to help gather the loose white strands back to body of the egg.
- Let the egg sit for 3 minutes, then carefully remove while draining excess water. Voila!
I went with a small pot and chose to only do one egg at a time, but I’m sure you could try two or three using these same tips and see how it goes!
Now, let’s not forget to talk about this Honey Lime Chipotle Sauce. I knew I wanted to add a flavorful sauce to these zucchini fritters and instantly remembered this gorgeous little concoction by Tieghan over at Half Baked Harvest and knew that a Honey Lime Chipotle sauce would add the perfect punch.
And it did! The chipotle adds such a lovely smokey little kick that challenges the citric bite of the lime, yet the pair is mellowed by the creaminess of the sour cream and the sweetness of the honey.
This would make a wonderful Saturday brunch, it even looks a tad fancy if you’re wanting to impress friends and family! ;) I hope you enjoy them as much as we did!
Zucchini Fritters with Poached Eggs
Ingredients
- FOR THE FRITTERS:
- 2 medium zucchini grated
- 3/4 red bell pepper diced
- 1/2 sweet onion diced
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup flax-seed
- 1/4 cup cashew meal
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 oz lite feta cheese crumbled
- 4 poached eggs
- smoked paprika
- FOR THE HONEY LIME CHIPOTLE SAUCE:
- 1/2 cup lite sour cream
- 1 chipotle pepper in adobe sauce minced
- 1 lime juiced
- 1 tbsp honey
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grate zucchini with a food processor or by hand, then coat with a light layer of salt and wait 5-10 minutes. This helps sweat the water out of the zucchini.
- Meanwhile, add onion and red bell to food processor or dice finely by hand.
- Take a handful of zucchini at a time and squeeze out all water, then add squeezed zucchini to new bowl, continue until all water has been squeezed out from grated zucchini. Do the same with the onions and peppers, working to eliminate as much water as possible. Add onions and peppers to the new bowl with zucchini.
- Add egg to zucchini, onion and pepper mixture and stir to combine.
- In separate bowl, combine flax-seed, cashew meal, baking powder, smoked paprika and pepper, stir to combine.
- Add seasoned flax seed mixture to veggies and stir until just combined. Add in crumbled feta cheese and mix well.
- Drop by spoonfuls of zucchini mixture on a greased baking sheet and flatten lightly. Bake for 8-10 minutes on middle each, then turn broiler on and broil for 3 minutes on each side, continuing to flip them until they are golden and crispy. I ended up broiling mine 3 minutes one side, flip, another three minutes, then repeated the process one more time, all the while watching carefully.
- For the poached eggs, add water to small pot and add one tablespoon apple cider vinegar, bring water to a boil, then turn down just enough so water is smooth, add egg to a sieve and slowly drop it into water, using spoon to help gather loose white strands and bring back to egg. Let the egg sit for 3 minutes, then carefully remove, draining access water.
- For the Honey Lime Chipotle sauce, combine all ingredients in small bowl and stir well or blend in NutriBullet, food processor or blender.
- Once fritters are baked through and a touch crispy, add to plate, top with honey lime chipotle sauce and poached egg, then garnish with black pepper and smoked paprika.
Notes
Nutrition
Honey Lime Chipotle Sauce slightly adapted from Half Baked Harvest!
