happy pizza fritter friday!
with the weekend nipping at our heels, i wanted to drop a super fun appetizer into your atmosphere today!
these little handheld pizza cuties are a direct brain child of my love for pizza + my most popular recipe of 2015 – spaghetti squash + quinoa fritters!
i started kelly’s ambitious kitchen in march of last year and when i embarked on my journey, i had no idea what to expect – building, maintaining + filling a blog is much harder than it looks, peeps! and knowing that i would be learning as i went along, i realistically set my bar pretty low for my expected audience.
WELL! the coolest thing to happen in my ambitious world was definitely being shocked + completely honored to have my spaghetti squash + quinoa fritters featured on buzzfeed! and brit + co! AND the huffington post canada!
{kelly. this is boring, talk about us again. .}
SO! with pizza on the mind -literally always- i wanted to shake up the “fritters of ‘15” with a new flavor profile!
enter: quinoa + zucchini pizza fritters!
these fritters take the same road as the others, just some simple ingredient swaps to keep things interesting!
the base for the fritters is achieved by whipping up egg with flour. then cooked quinoa is added {helloooooo nutrients!} + spiralized zucchini joins the party to amp up the veggie power + bring in tons of moisture.
as for the ‘toppings’ – treat it like pizza, ya’ll!
this time around i opted for three cheeses – pepperjack, mozzarella, parmesan – because. well. why the heck not! i also added diced jalapeno to bring subtle heat, which i love so very much, especially in contrast with the rich cheese blend.
everything is seasoned with an italian seasoning blend {like pizza! get it!} + then dropped by the dollop into the best part of this recipe – a screaming hot waffle iron!
i said it here, but waffle irons are the absolute coolest!
gone are the days of ‘oh shit, gramma gave me a waffle iron!’
you can use waffle irons for sweet + savory recipes! here, we chose a waffle iron because it gets hella hot, which make them the perfect vessel for ‘frying’ up these fritters. they also make fritters totally accessible! the traditional method for cooking fritters has you hovering over a skillet with oil splattering all over your new shirt.
without experience, skillet fritter frying can become a hot mess. which is a total buzzkill, and nobody wants the possibility of a buzzkill when pizza is around!
oh my gosh.
my kombucha-fueled rant led me to totally forget the very best part of using a waffle iron – it delivers the CRISPIEST results!
the top and bottom and sides of the waffle iron all aid in crisping up every bit they can get their iron on, which in the case of pizza fritters, results in a total thin crust-like pizza experience!
so! dust off that ol’ waffle iron, plug her in + get to mixing up you new favorite snack, app or lunch! consider this a snack that will save your sanity, save on your dry cleaning bill AND save some cals while you’re at it too!
i do hope you enjoy this spin as much as it’s spaghetti squash sister! as any great mother will tell you, i love them equally ;]
- 2 eggs
- ⅓ cup flour
- 1 large zucchini, spirialized
- 1 cup quinoa, cooked
- ¼ cup parmesan cheese, grated
- ½ cup pepperjack cheese, shredded
- ½ cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 1 jalapeno, seeds removed + finely diced
- 1 teaspoons italian seasoning
- pizza sauce, for dipping
- plug in your waffle iron to get it super hot-n-ready!
- in the bowl of your stand mixer, add the eggs. beat, on high, for 2 minutes.
- add flour + continue beating to combine. {about 1 minute}
- next, add zucchini, quinoa, both cheeses, jalapeno + seasoning to the egg mixture.
- beat, on medium, until fully combined + uniform consistency has been achieved.
- once the waffle iron is ready to go, spray it with nonstick cooking spray + use a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon to portion out the zucchini mixture. drop the dollop of mixture onto the waffle iron {my iron fit 4 dollops at a time} + close the waffle iron lid down!
- cook the fritters for 4 minutes + raise lid. they should be perfectly crisp around the edges, but add more time to suite your preferences/until they reach a golden brown!
- use a rubber spatula to easily lift the fritters up + out of the waffle iron. serve with pizza sauce for dipping + grated parmesan as garnish, if desired. enjoy!
use your favorite pizza toppings for this recipe – the possibilities are endless! love black olives + green bell pepper? do it! or maybe you love the classic hawaiian spin with canadian bacon, pineapple + red onion.. alo-how good! meat lovers will even work – just be sure whatever toppings you add in that you finely chop so they incorporate well into each bite.
spiralized zucchini is easy for me because i own a spiralizer {this one to be exact!}. if you do not have one, you can finely chop or grate the zucchini into the recipe.
these are best served hot – so a great tip for entertaining is to premake your batter + simply waffle-ize when your guests are ready or on their way!
join along as kelly posts, pins + peruses for inspiration in her ambitious kitchen!