Turkish Zucchini Fritters with Yogurt Cacik
Flavorful zucchini fritters with feta and fresh herbs are served with Cacik, a traditional Turkish cucumber and yogurt sauce.
This month we stumbled upon the blog Turnips2Tangerines. We were excited to find another Wisconsin blogger who knows how to use mulberries! And, we will be making Lynn's Mulberry Syrup when this year's harvest comes in!
When we saw her Culinary Adventures: Recipes from Around the World series, we knew that we needed to try out one of those dishes. And, that was when we found the Buckwheat Zucchini Mücver she created for her culinary adventures in Turkey.
Mücver: Turkish Zucchini Fritters
Mücver (pronounced MOOSH-vair) are zucchini fritters, and a classic Turkish dish. Zucchini are one of the most widely available summer squash in Turkey, which is probably why Turkish Stuffed Zucchini is common fare. These fritters are a great way to use up the zucchini innards you have leftover after making stuffed zucchini. What a tasty way to make sure nothing goes to waste!
We didn't make stuffed zucchini first, but these fritters are so tasty, I don't think anyone would blame you for making use of a whole zucchini so that you can serve Mücver.
With fresh herbs and pockets of feta cheese, these fritters make for a delicious warm appetizer (meze) or as a side dish for a main meal. They are also surprisingly tasty cold, and make a fun picnic food.
Lynn makes her fritters using buckwheat flour, so we did too. The buckwheat flour adds a dark color to the batter and a deep nuttiness to the fritters. If you don't have buckwheat flour, regular, whole wheat flour will work just fine.
Turkish Yogurt Cacik
We served our fritters with Cacık (pronounced JAH-Jeek), which is a thick yogurt mixed with cucumbers and herbs. It is served as a condiment with many Turkish dishes, but can also be watered down to create a refreshing, cold summer soup. If you are familiar with Greek Tzaziki, then you are already familiar enough with Cacık, because they are incredibly similar and can be used interchangeably.
Turkish Zucchini Fritters
Ingredients
- 1 medium zucchini, , coarsely grated (about 2 c grated)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 shallot, minced
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 2 oz feta cheese, crumbled
- ⅓ c buckwheat flour*
- 1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped, or 1 teaspoon dry
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped, or 1 teaspoon dry
- 1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped, or 1 teaspoon dry
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon dried red chili flakes
- Vegetable oil (for frying)
Instructions
- Mix grated zucchini and salt together in a strainer. Place over a bowl and let the zucchini drain for 20-30 minutes. Once the zucchini has drained, rinse it and pat it dry with a clean towel.
- In a medium bowl mix grated zucchini together with the remaining ingredients (except the vegetable oil).
- Pour vegetable oil into a cast iron skillet (or other heavy-bottomed frying pan), so that the bottom of the pan is just barely coated with an even layer. Heat the oil over medium high heat.
- Reduce the heat to medium and scoop ¼ cup of the zucchini mixture into the pan. Press the patty flat. Continue until the pan is full of fritters, but none are touching. Cook the fritters for 2-3 minutes on each side, until golden. (You may need to reduce the heat to medium low as the pan continues to heat.)
- Remove the fritters from the pan and place onto a paper towel lined plate. Keep the cooked fritters warm in a low oven while you continue cooking the rest of the batter.
- Serve the fritters warm with yogurt or cacik as a dipping sauce. (See recipe below.)
Notes
Cacik
Ingredients
- 1 small cucumber, finely grated, (about ½ c grated)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 c plain yogurt (regular or Greek)
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 ½ teaspoon fresh mint, chopped, or ½ teaspoon dry
- 1 ½ teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped, or ½ teaspoon dry
- 1 teaspoon fresh dill, chopped, or ⅓ teaspoon dry
Instructions
- Mix the salt and grated cucumber. Place in a fine sieve over a bowl and let drain for 20-30 minutes. When you are ready to make your dip, mix yogurt, garlic and seasonings together.
- Press out any excess moisture from for grated cucumber and pat it dry with a clean towel. Add the cucumber to the yogurt mixture and mix to combine.
- Refrigerate the mixture for 1-3 hours to let the flavors come together.
- Dip can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. It will separate slightly the longer it sets, just stir the moisture back into the yogurt before serving.
Sarah founded Curious in 2010 as a way to save her recipe creations and share culinary experiences. Her love for cultural cuisines was instilled early by her French Canadian Grandmother. Her experience in the kitchen and in recipe development comes from over 10 years working in professional kitchens. She has traveled extensively and enjoys bringing the flavors of her travels back to create easy-to-make recipes.
I love using buckwheat flour for recipes like this. These fritters look wonderful, and I really love the dip!!!
Thanks! We're excited to start exploring more recipes that use buckwheat flour!
These fritters sound so delicious! Looks like we both went with zucchini recipes this month 🙂
Thanks! 'Tis the season to start thinking about garden bounty like zucchini! 🙂
Its that time of year to start stock piling zucchini dishes. This one sounds so unique. Definitely a way to switch things up. Great pick!!
Thanks! We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Oh, these are incredibly cute and I am sure very very tasty! Spring is such a great season!
Thanks Sally! We do love spring. There's so much potential for tasty, home-grown goodness!
So happy to hear you enjoyed the zucchini fritters! They were a first time experience for me and we enjoyed them at room temperature. Glad to hear someone has found a Mulberry tree to enjoy~ This year I'm going to try making Mulberry Liqueur and give the liqueur away for Christmas gifts. I'll let you know how it goes...Lynn
Ooh, that sounds wonderful! I can't wait to hear how your liquer turns out! We've started making wine with ours. It took a few batches to perfect it, but I think we're getting close!
This is a great way to use up zucchini when it's so plentiful in the summer. I'd take these fritters with a poached egg and dinner would be serve!
I love the idea of serving them with poached eggs. We'll be trying that next time!
These look mighty good - I love zucchini and making them into fritters - YES! How genius! Happy reveal day!
Thanks Sarah!
I have similar zucchini fritters to this in the Greek islands, and I love them. Using buckwheat flour is a new variation to me though, and I think that's a great idea. This is definitely one for me to try.
Thanks! The buckwheat flour was new to us too. But it was fun to experiment!
Zucchini fritters are one of my favourites and these look amazing! Great SRC pick!
Thanks Asiya! I think we will be eating them more often now. They're so easy and tasty!
I can only hope that my zucchini plant actually produces something this year so I can give these a try! They sound fantastic! Great pick this month 🙂
Thanks Melissa! We're hoping the same for ours!
These look delicious! I have buckwheat flour in the pantry for pancakes but have never used it for anything else. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thanks Susan! Now that we have the flour, we need to try buckwheat pancakes!
How interesting is that!!! I've always wanted to try using buckwheat, but have so many ingredients in my house "just in case...." =) These sound yummy!
Thanks Karen! We've been curious about buckwheat for a while now, and this recipe was the final push to get a bag. I'm glad we did, because now we can experiment!
I love fritters and these zucchini fritters sound delish! A great way to use the abundance of garden fresh zucchini that will be available in a few months. And the sauce...that sounds amazing too. Happy reveal day
Thanks Lynsey! This will be a perfect recipe in a few month with all the garden produce!
I love making zucchini fritters! This version sounds so good, and that dip sounds just AMAZING!!
Thanks Jess. We ate that dip with almost everything for a couple of days. Now I need to make more!!