These delicious vegan zucchini fritters are crispy on the outside and moist on the inside with a perfect savory flavor. Quick and easy light meal.
Vegan zucchini fritters are here!
Well I guess I shouldn’t act as if I’m the first person to ever make vegan zucchini fritters, there are definitely others that have come before, so maybe I’ll rephrase that. My version of vegan zucchini fritters are here.
From the start in testing this recipe, these fritters tasted amazing. Beyond amazing. So much flavor.
Perfectly Crisp Vegan Zucchini Fritters
But I had a little challenge with them being a bit too wet on the inside, even without adding any actual liquid to the recipe. Zucchini is a ‘very’ wet ingredient. If you use it in a cake or brownies, it creates amazing moistness in the texture.
But for these fritters, where they just fry a little on each side until browned, rather than baking like cakes or brownies, they didn’t dry up enough to be the right texture and were just a bit too wet on the inside.
So I got a little inspiration from Recipe Tin Eats who has a non-vegan version of zucchini fritters, and she lets the grated zucchini sit in a bowl with a little salt for 10 minutes and then squeezes the excess moisture out of the zucchini.
This worked great!
I did have to add a bit of moisture back IN though, in the form of some melted vegan butter. But that ended up with a really good texture. Crispy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside, but not wet.
And always with that ridiculously delicious flavor!
The other recipe that provided inspiration for this was our vegan corn fritters (which are great!).
How To Make Vegan Zucchini Fritters
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Grate the zucchini and add to a bowl with a sprinkle of salt. Leave it for 10 minutes. Then use your hands (or a tea towel) to squeeze the zucchini and drain off the excess water. Place the squeezed zucchini into another bowl and leave the water behind.
- Once the squeezed zucchini is in a fresh mixing bowl, add flour, nutritional yeast, baking powder, crushed garlic and chopped spring onions (also called green onions) and mix it together. It will be very crumbly.
- Add melted vegan butter and mix into a thick batter.
- Add olive oil to a frying pan and once hot, use an ice cream scoop/cookie scoop to scoop out even sized amounts of batter into the frying pan.
- Use your spatula to press down from the top and flatten your fritters.
- After around 3 minutes flip it over and cook the other side. When both sides are browned, they’re ready and you can cook your next batch.
Keep Them Warm In The Oven
Keep warm in the oven. While you’re cooking your second batch, your first batch can be staying warm and crispy in the oven. Preheat your oven to 210°F (100°C) and line a tray, preferably with a grill rack on top of it as below, with parchment paper.
Place the cooked fritters on the grill rack and place them in the warm oven while you cook the rest of your batch. If you have anything else to do when the fritters are cooked then you can do it safe in the knowledge that they are staying warm and crispy.
Chef’s Tips
Squeeze the excess water out of the zucchini using your hands or a tea towel. I don’t have strong hands, Jaye however has very strong hands! He plays guitar and does workouts that involve serious grip strength, so when it came to squeezing out the excess water from the zucchini, he can easily do it. I started doing it and a couple of weak squeezes later I was like: ‘ow, my hands are sore!’
So, whoever you have in your household with strong hands, get them to do it. Otherwise use a tea towel to make it easier.
If you don’t squeeze the excess moisture out well enough, then compensate by using a little less melted vegan butter. You only need this batter to just pull together, from crumbly, into a batter.
If your zucchini was a little more wet you’ll see that it will mix into a batter more easily so you can then just use less melted vegan butter.
Fry at high heat. Let the pan get nice and hot with a little oil before you add in your fritters. And then let them get nice and browned on each side.
Use a cookie scoop. The batter is very thick, so the best way to do it is to use a cookie scoop/ice cream scoop, to scoop out the batter, that way you also get fritters that are pretty much the same size.
Scoop the batter so that the fritters are in a ball shape when they go into the pan and then flatten them with your spatula as they fry.
If you don’t have a cookie scoop, you can just estimate it as around ¼ cup of batter per fritter.
Weigh your whole zucchinis before you grate them, to get roughly the right amount, and then again after grating to ensure accuracy. But definitely weigh it before you have squeezed out the excess water. Our weight is based on the grated zucchini before any squeezing has occurred.
Weigh your flour for the best accuracy as flour measures can be tricky. Alternatively use the ‘spoon and level’ method. Spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife.
Ingredient Notes
Vegan butter. You can probably use coconut oil (melted) instead of vegan butter. Or use a homemade vegan butter. See our notes above about possibly using less if you didn’t squeeze as much moisture out of the zucchini.
Nutritional yeast. We used nutritional yeast because it adds a wonderful cheesy flavor to these fritters. The flavor balance is really GREAT on these. But if you don’t like nutritional yeast, I would recommend perhaps trying to use the same amount of grated vegan cheese. If there is a brand of vegan cheese that you like (a vegan parmesan would be awesome) then grate that up and use it in the same quantity (¼ cup). This is untested but I think could work here.
Spring onions. These are also known as green onions, salad onions or scallions. I think chopped chives would also be good in these zucchini fritters. If you want to mix it up, you could try those as well.
Make Them Gluten-Free
I haven’t tried it yet but a gluten-free all purpose flour blend should be fine as a direct swap for the regular flour in these. If your mix is too dry (gluten-free flours can absorb more moisture), then add a little more vegan butter.
Serving Suggestions
Serve your zucchini fritters topped with a dollop of vegan sour cream and lots of extra chopped spring onions. Plain vegan cashew cream is also wonderful with this.
Storing Tips
They are best served hot, crispy and fresh. But if you do have leftovers, keep them covered in the fridge for up to 3 days and warm them up by giving them a quick re-fry in a hot pan.
They also can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge and then reheat.
More Vegan Zucchini Recipes
- Vegan Zucchini Muffins
- Vegan Zucchini Bread
- Vegan Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- Vegan Zucchini Brownies
- Vegan Zucchini Soup
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Zucchini Fritters
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups Grated Zucchini (490g) measured/weighed before squeezing out excess water
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 cup All Purpose Flour (125g)
- ¼ cup Nutritional Yeast
- 1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Crushed Garlic
- 2 Spring Onions Chopped*
- ¼ cup Vegan Butter (56g) Melted
- 2 Tbsp Olive Oil for frying
For Serving (Optional):
- 1 Recipe Vegan Sour Cream
- Spring Onions Chopped
Instructions
- Grate the zucchini and then add it to a mixing bowl. Sprinkle over the salt and mix in. Then leave it for 10 minutes. The salt will help release the excess water from the zucchini. Then use your hands to squeeze the zucchini and drain off excess water. Place the squeezed zucchini into another bowl and leave the water behind.
- Once the squeezed zucchini is in a fresh mixing bowl, add in the flour, nutritional yeast, baking powder, crushed garlic and chopped spring onions and mix together. It will be very crumbly.*
- Add in the melted vegan butter and mix into a thick batter.
- Preheat the oven to 210°F (100°C) and place some parchment paper over a grill rack on a baking tray. This is where you’ll place your fritters to keep them warm.
- Add 1 Tbsp of olive oil to a frying pan and let it get hot. Once hot, use an ice cream scoop/cookie scoop to scoop out even sized amounts of batter into the frying pan. If you don’t have a cookie scoop just use around ¼ cup for each fritter. Use your spatula to press it down from the top and flatten. Depending on the size of your pan you can cook a few at a time. I was able to do 4 at a time.
- Let it cook for a few minutes and then flip over – around 3 minutes per side. When both sides are nicely browned, then transfer your cooked fritters to the baking tray in the warmed oven to stay warm.
- Add the remaining Tbsp of olive oil to the frying pan and repeat with your next batch.
- Serve with vegan sour cream and chopped spring onions.
Video
Notes
- Batter. If your batter is coming together very well without the addition of the vegan butter, then there was more water left in your zucchinis than in my batch. You can add in less vegan butter in this case, just a tablespoon of vegan butter is enough in terms of flavor, the rest is to make the batter come together, so if you don’t need it, you don’t have to use it. If your batter still seems quite ‘wet’ add in a little more flour. If the batter is too wet, your fritters will be soggy inside. The batter should have only enough liquid to just come together into a batter. But don’t worry, even if your fritters end up a little soggy inside, they will still be delicious and letting them sit in the oven for a bit on the tray will help them dry out more as well.
- Spring onions are also known as green onions, salad onions or scallions.
- Storing and Freezing. They are best served hot, crispy and fresh. But if you do have leftovers, keep them covered in the fridge for up to 3 days and warm them up by giving them a quick re-fry in a hot pan. They also can be frozen for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge and then reheat.
- Nutritional information is for fritters only and excludes vegan sour cream.
- Recipe inspired by Recipe Tin Eats and our own recipe for Vegan Corn Fritters.
Oh my goodness! I’ve been vegan for 3 years and this is by far my favorite recipe yet! I’ve made it 3 times already. Just gave a plate to my neighbor who has been sharing with me a seemingly endless supply of zucchini from her garden. *** Each of us will be a blessing to the other. Romans 1:12 ***
Oh wonderful! So glad you love the recipe! 🙂
These fritters are delicious and have become my family’s favorite way to eat zucchini. We have them at least once a week because we have an abundant supply of zucchini coming from our garden.
So happy to hear that Lesia! Thanks for the wonderful review!
We enjoyed these. Will make again
Awesome! Thanks Caroline!
Hi Alison! Just about to make these for a vegan friend. Do you know if they’ll freeze well after cooking?
Hi Sue, yes you can freeze them. 🙂
Easy and delicious! I’m new to veganism. I will definitely make this recipe again and I’m looking forward to trying other recipes on this site!
Awesome! Thanks so much Melissa!
I haven’t made these yet. I’d like to know if I can substitute the nutritional yeast with something. Is it in there for flavour purposes only or does it bind too?
It provides a bit of cheesy flavor, I think you could leave it out.
Hi. This looks delish….Can other gluten free flour be subbed? And if so which would you recommen?
Hi Kat, a gluten free all purpose flour blend should work great in the same quantity as the regular flour. 🙂
Thank you so much for your great website. I’ve been looking around for the past few days and I’m so inspired by all the great ideas, especially about all those great cheesy substitutes, yummy!!! I’m a guilty feeling vegetarian who loves (cream) cheese and now I’ve learned a lot more tricks to create happy vegan options. It’s great, very exciting! You’re really doing the world a favor to inspire with those yummy vegan recipes.
I made the zucchini fritters yesterday and was very happy with the result, it was so easy and delicious! One half I made exactly like the recipe, the second half I added some shredded nuts to the batter. Asked my husband ‘which do you prefer’ and we both definitely go for those with the shredded nuts. It adds a very nice crunch to the fritters and tastes really good.
Cheers from a sailboat in the Pacific 🙂
Hi Illona, so glad you’re inspired by the recipes! And thanks for sharing your recipe adjustment, we’ll have to try it like that! 🙂
Hi Alison. Thank you so much for this recipe. I have never been successful in making zucchini fritters but these held together perfectly and were the most delicious zucchini fritters that we ever tried!
These were super delicious! I let the zucchini sit for a longer time (30 mins), then squeezed probably two or three cups of water out while wringing it out in a tea towel. I fried them in the morning and then just put them in the oven on a baking sheet for 5-10 mins at 200 degrees before serving at dinner. Delish!
This recipe was amazing, thank you so much for this! I did it and it came out so good! It was sort of like a frittata, mine were a little bigger but it was so good and the tip about removing the excess water was perfect – I could not believe how much water zucchini has in it. Thank you for this great vegan recipe, I loved the taste I will definitely be making it again 🙂
Wonderful Laura! Thanks so much for the great review. 🙂
Very delicious!! We made them for dinner last night, using yellow summer squash instead of zucchini. We will be having them for dinner again tonight. They were good enough for at least two nights in a row. The texture was great and they were easy to make. I searched google for “vegan zucchini fritters” and found the recipe. I am so glad I gave it a try.
So glad you enjoyed them Deborah, thanks for the awesome review!
These have excellent flavor! Very crispy. The texture is perfect IF the zucchini is squeezed very, very dry. The first time we made them we left them quite wet, and while the flavor was excellent, the texture was a bit too wet. The second time I was able to extract an entire 1c of liquid from it and it made a world of difference. Use a towel to wring the zucchini dry if necessary. Providing the weights of the zucchini and flour is a great help! Thank you. Such a great way to eat zucchini. A wonderful appetizer (or in our case we enjoyed these as our entire meal!)
Hi Joan! So glad you enjoyed them! The tea towel tip is a great one to get the zucchini really dry. Thanks for the great review!
These were really good! I added some chopped parsley, paprika, and lemon pepper seasoning for extra flavor! They are a bit oily though, would it be possible to use some of the water from the zucchini and use half the amount of butter?
Glad you enjoyed them! You could of course try that but it might cause them to be a bit soggy.
Just made these fritters for dinner. My hubby and I loved them. Thanks you so much. 🙂
Awesome Sarah! Thanks so much!