Crispy potato and vegetable fritters with yogurt sauce

Today I bring you a simple recipe, light and delicious in equal parts. Inspired by the traditional rösti or Swiss potato omelette, these crispy potato and vegetable fritters with yogurt sauce are the perfect side dish for lunches and dinners. Served with the Greek yogurt sauce with mint and lemon, they have a very fresh touch, but if you want a vegan recipe, you can serve them without it and, likewise, you will have a very nutritious dish that everyone at home will love, young and old.

These omelettes or vegetable fritters are a great leftovers recipe. You’ll see that, in addition to grated potato, they include zucchini, peas and thin green asparagus tips, but you can add onion, carrot, peppers, eggplant or pumpkin, for example. Whatever you like most, whatever you have in the fridge or whatever catches your eye at the market. And for seasoning them, the advice is the same. Adapt them to your taste, because I’m sure you’ll make them a staple at home.

So they get that crispy edge everyone loves and that the little ones adore, the ideal is to cook them in the de Buyer Mineral B iron frying pan. The high temperatures that cast iron reaches are perfect to enhance the Maillard reaction in foods: a golden exterior and a juicy, flavor-packed interior. You can use more or less oil, depending on how you want to cook them: fried or on the griddle. You'll see that with this cast iron skillet they will turn out great either way.

All that’s left is to try them so you can see how tasty they are. So here is the recipe for the Crispy potato and vegetable fritters with yogurt sauce that has won us over at home.

Ingredients

For the crispy fritters or röstis

• 800 g potatoes
• 1 small zucchini
• 90 g fresh peas (you can use frozen)
• 100 g thin green asparagus tips, cut into small pieces
• Extra virgin olive oil (approximately 1-2 tablespoons)
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• Salt (to taste)
• Freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
• Neutral oil for frying

For the yogurt sauce

• 300 g Greek yogurt (you can use natural yogurt and let it drain well to remove the whey)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 garlic clove grated or finely chopped
• 10 mint leaves finely chopped
• 1 spring onion finely chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon sweet-smoky paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• Salt (to taste)
• Freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
  

Preparation

Preparation of the potato and vegetable fritters

1. Peel and wash the potatoes. Grate them with a grater or a mandoline to get thin, even strips. Set aside.
2. Grate the zucchini the same way and mix it with the grated potato.
3. Place the mixture on a fine sieve or a clean cloth and add a little salt. Let it rest for at least 15 minutes to release the excess water.
4. Meanwhile, bring a saucepan of water to a boil and cook the peas for 8-10 minutes. If they are frozen, follow the package directions for cooking time. Set aside.
5. Heat your de Buyer Mineral B iron frying pan with a little olive oil and, when hot, sauté the asparagus for about 3-4 minutes. Set aside.
6. After the 15 minutes have passed, drain the grated potato and zucchini mixture well, squeezing it in the sieve or, if you left it in a cloth, twisting the cloth to remove as much liquid as possible.
7. Put this mixture in a bowl, and add the peas and the asparagus, mixing well.
8. Now add the sifted cornstarch and stir well to incorporate. Season with salt and pepper to taste and mix a little.
9. Heat your de Buyer Mineral B iron frying pan with the neutral oil.
10. When it’s hot, place spoonfuls of the vegetable mixture in the skillet and press them down to form the fritters. You can make them any size you want; in this case they are large, about 8 cm in diameter.
11. Fry the fritters until you see the edges are golden and flip them so they fry on the other side.
12. Repeat the process until all the mixture is used; if necessary, add more oil.

Preparation of the yogurt sauce

1. Mix the yogurt with the juice of half a lemon, the garlic, the mint and the spring onion in a bowl. Stir well to combine the ingredients.
2. Add the paprika, cumin and ginger and stir again.
3. Now add salt and pepper to taste, and stir to combine. Keep chilled in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Suggestions

• If you have the Chufamix, you can use it to let the water drain from the grated potato and zucchini. It’s a fabulous option!
• As you can see, it’s the perfect leftovers recipe. And it gives you a lot of room to add the vegetables you like best: thinly sliced peppers or green beans, shredded onion or cabbage, eggplant, pumpkin, whatever you want or have in the fridge!
• You can also season the fritters to your liking: with chopped parsley, spicy paprika, curry, rosemary or fine herbs. Again, whatever you want or have in the pantry!
  
• You can serve them with the yogurt sauce from the recipe, or with a traditional romesco sauce. In the latter case, you’ll have a completely vegan and absolutely delicious recipe.
• These crispy fritters are the perfect side for both meats and fish. I assure you that once you bring the platter to the table they will disappear as if by magic!