These sweet zucchini and corn fritters are loaded with fresh veggies and cheese! Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Betcha can't eat just one!
I love to come up with colorful, flavorful combinations, and these are such a confetti of colors - who doesn't love pretty food?
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💖 Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Quick & Kid Friendly - These fritters are quick to make, taking only 30 minutes from start to finish, and your kids will love them too, especially if you let them help!
- Full of Veggies & Colors - Yellow corn, green zucchini, red bell pepper, white hash browns - lots of nutritious veggies and lots of colors in these babies! You have the light crisp of the corn along with the red peppers, and lots of flavors combining to make a delicious treat that goes great with most anything you're serving.
- Versatile & Flexible - Great as an appetizer or side dish with ranch dipping sauce. I have created a base zucchini corn fritters recipe that doesn't have hash browns and cheese in case you don't have these items (or you just don't want to use them). This way adds a bit more flexibility to the recipe. I know many of my recipes have lots of ingredients. It's because I love lots of flavors. So this time I wanted to create a couple variations - the "base" recipe and the "deluxe" version that also adds hash browns and cheese.
🧾 Ingredients
What You'll Need:
- 2 medium-sized zucchini
- 1 cup yellow or white corn (fresh or frozen)
- 2 cups cornmeal or corn flour
- 2 eggs (3 if making the "deluxe" fritters)
- salt and black pepper
- dry thyme and marjoram (or Herbs de Provence)
- red bell pepper
- garlic and onion powder
- oil for frying (I like to use either coconut oil or bacon fat, but use what you like)
For the "deluxe" version, you will need:
- An extra egg
- 2 cups of frozen hash browns, thawed
- 1 cup of cheddar cheese, shredded and packed
Note: Makes about 8 fritters with the basic recipe and 12-16 fritters with the "deluxe." Of course, this is depending on how big you make them. Mine were about 3-½ inches across.
(See recipe card below for ingredient quantities and printable instructions)
🥘 What Are Fritters?
Fritters are a type of "pancake" basically created by putting some ingredients together, usually a combination of vegetables and/or meats, along with eggs to hold it all together and either corn meal or flour to thicken and coat.
Then the fritters are fashioned into cakes and fried in oil or butter. Fritters can also be baked in the oven, but I'm frying mine in this recipe.
🔪 Instructions
Making Zucchini Corn Fritters:
- First, you will preheat a heavy skillet on medium heat.
- These corn and zucchini fritters are made by first beating the eggs in a large bowl. Then you will add the zucchini and corn, salt and black pepper, red bell pepper, herbs, and garlic and onion powder.
- Add in also one cup of the corn meal.
- You will mix all these ingredients together thoroughly until incorporated. (Note that if you are making the "deluxe" version, you will also add the hash browns and shredded cheese at this point also.)
- Next, I like to add my corn meal to a small plate to dip the patties into before adding to the pan.
- You can also use a large plate if you want to have room to add all the corn meal at once. Otherwise, with a small plate, you will be adding more corn meal as it gets too low to coat the next patty.
- Get about ⅓ cup of the vegetable and egg mixture into your hands and form into a patty and coat on both sides with the corn meal.
- Drop into the hot pan where you want it to cook (you don't want to move it until it's done on the first side or it will stick).
- Form each patty until you have a full pan. I will typically get about 4 to 6 per batch, depending on their size, so prepare to do more than one batch. This also depends on the size of your skillet.
- Once the zucchini corn fritters are browned on one side, they will be easy to flip and cook on the other side. Once browned to your liking, remove to a plate to cool while cooking the rest of the fritters.
Great served as a side dish or as a snack or appetizer with dipping sauce.
I hope you and your family enjoy this corn and zucchini fritters recipe as much as my family and I do! Let me know in the comments below!
(Scroll down for printable recipe card.)
💡 Tips
- Squeeze zucchini with paper towels after shredding to remove excess liquid.
- If using hashbrowns, be sure to pat dry (if fresh) or thaw, drain liquid, and pat dry (if frozen).
- If the mixture is runny, you can add extra corn meal to thicken it up. It should be somewhat thick and not runny or pourable (see image below).
- Form patties into balls first and then flatten in your hands before coating both sides with cornmeal.
- I like to have the corn meal on a plate so I can easily coat both sides of the fritter with less mess.
- Make sure to thaw and drain if you're using frozen corn.
📖 Substitutions
Red pepper - I love the red color in these corn and zucchini fritters, but you could also use green, yellow, or orange bell pepper instead.
Corn - White corn is just as good as yellow, so use what you have - I just like how vibrant the yellow corn is in the finished fritters. If you don't have fresh, then frozen corn is a close second - just make sure to thaw and drain the corn before adding to the rest of the ingredients, as you don't want that extra moisture. You could also use canned corn - just make sure to drain it thoroughly before adding to the mixture.
Zucchini - You can use any summer squash instead of the zucchini if you wish (green, yellow, crookneck, straight neck, etc.) Summer squash is the squash that doesn't last as long and is cooked with the skin on typically. Just be aware that you will need to press out the excess moisture from any shredded squash or zucchini you use.
🫙 Storing & Reheating
You can refrigerate these fritters for up to 3 days and freeze for up to 3 months. When freezing, it's best to separate them so they don't stick together when frozen (make sure to cook them before freezing). Reheat in an oiled pan on medium heat until heated through. For frozen fritters, thaw before reheating.
🍴 Serving Suggestions
Serve these fritters with your favorite meat or as an appetizer before a meal or for a party with dipping sauce (I like a simple Ranch dip for mine). Try these with my London Broil (slow cooker) or alongside my Cast Iron Skillet Potatoes with bacon or Creamy Scalloped Potatoes.
🥒 More Zucchini Recipes
Zucchini Potato Soup
Ground Beef Rice Casserole with Zucchini
Zucchini Pasta Sauce with Ground Beef
Savory Zucchini Bread
More Summer Recipes here.
Recipe
Corn and Zucchini Fritters (2 ways!)
Ingredients
- 2 cups zucchini shredded (about 2 medium)
- 1 cup corn fresh or frozen (thawed)
- 2 cups corn meal or corn flour, divided
- 2 large eggs
- ½ teaspoon salt more to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon thyme dry
- 1 teaspoon marjoram dry
- ⅓ cup red bell pepper finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- oil for frying
Deluxe Fritters - in addition to above
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups hash browns fresh (patted dry) or frozen (thawed and drained)
- 1 cup cheddar cheese shredded
Instructions
- First, you will preheat a heavy skillet on medium heat.
- Beat the eggs in a large bowl (2 for the regular version, 3 if making the "deluxe" version). Add the zucchini and corn, salt and black pepper, red bell pepper, herbs, and garlic and onion powder. Add in also one cup of the corn meal.
- Mix all these ingredients together thoroughly until incorporated.
- Note that if you are making the "deluxe" version, you will also add the hash browns and shredded cheese at this point also.
- Add corn meal to a small plate to dip the patties into before adding to the pan. Add more corn meal as it gets too low to coat the next patty.
- Get about ⅓ cup of the vegetable and egg mixture into your hands and form into a patty and coat on both sides with the corn meal.
- Drop patty into the hot pan where you want it to cook (you don't want to move it until it's done on the first side or it will stick).
- Form each patty until you have a full pan. I will typically get about 4 to 6 per batch, depending on their size, so prepare to do more than one batch. (This also depends on the size of your skillet.)
- Once the fritters are browned on one side, they will be easy to flip and cook on the other side. Once browned to your liking, remove to a plate to cool while cooking the rest of the fritters.
Notes
- Squeeze zucchini with paper towels after shredding to remove excess liquid.
- If using hashbrowns, be sure to pat dry (if fresh) or thaw, drain liquid, and pat dry (if frozen).
- If the mixture is runny, you can add extra corn meal to thicken it up. It should be somewhat thick and not runny or pourable.
- Form patties into balls first and then flatten in your hands before coating both sides with cornmeal.
- I like to have the corn meal on a plate so I can easily coat both sides of the fritter with less mess.
- Make sure to thaw and drain if you're using frozen corn.
Benny
They were absolutely delicious. I have only one question the first few held together beautifully, the last few fell apart. There was a lot of liquid in the bowl. Your advice is greatly appreciated.
Sally
Thanks Benny! If the first held together great, but the last did not - this is probably a mixing issue. If you have a lot of liquid left in the bowl, I would suggest draining it. You will want to incorporate all the ingredients before forming into patties. If there is liquid at the end, you can avoid it by reaching from the top of the bowl only, or you can drain the excess liquid. Hope that helps!