Courgette and broad bean fritters: the recipe for the height of the glut

By the last week of July, every vegetable patch and producer box in Britain is saying the same two things: too many courgettes, and the broad beans are nearly over. This fritter is the answer to both. It uses half a kilo of courgettes at a go, it makes the last of the beans feel like an occasion rather than a chore, and it takes about twenty minutes from grater to plate. Eat them hot with a spoonful of yoghurt for lunch, or cold from the fridge the next day, when they are arguably better.

Makes about twelve small fritters — lunch for four, or supper for two with a salad.

What you’ll need

2 medium courgettes, about 500g

200g broad beans in their pods’ worth — about 150g podded, or use frozen

1 teaspoon fine salt, plus more to season

4 spring onions, finely sliced

A small bunch of mint, leaves chopped (dill or parsley work too)

75g crumbly cheese — feta is traditional, but a sharp Lancashire or a young crumbly Cheshire from a stall near you is every bit as good

2 eggs

75g plain flour

Black pepper and a little lemon zest

Olive or rapeseed oil, for frying

Thick yoghurt and a lemon, to serve

The one rule: salt the courgettes

Courgettes are mostly water, and water is the enemy of a crisp fritter. Coarsely grate them into a colander, toss with the teaspoon of salt, and leave them over the sink for ten minutes while you get on with everything else. Then — this is the whole trick — take handfuls and squeeze them as hard as you can. You will be startled by how much liquid comes out. Squeeze until your conscience is clear, then squeeze once more.

Method

1. Pod the broad beans and drop them into boiling water for two minutes, then into cold. If the beans are big and their skins leathery — and by late July they will be — slip the bright green centres out of their grey jackets. It takes five minutes and transforms them. Small early beans and frozen ones can stay as they are.

2. While the beans cool, salt and squeeze the grated courgettes as above.

3. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, then stir in the squeezed courgette, the beans, spring onions, mint, crumbled cheese, lemon zest and a good grind of pepper. Fold in the flour last, until it just disappears. The batter should be thick enough to drop reluctantly from a spoon; if it looks wet, a spoonful more flour.

4. Heat a generous film of oil in a wide frying pan over a medium heat. Drop in heaped tablespoons of the mixture, flattening each slightly, and don’t crowd the pan — six at a time is plenty. Fry for three minutes or so a side, until deeply golden and set at the edges. Resist the urge to turn them early; the crust is the point.

5. Drain on kitchen paper, salt lightly while hot, and keep the first batch warm in a low oven while you fry the rest. Serve with thick yoghurt, lemon to squeeze over, and more mint if you have it.

Ringing the changes

Once you have the formula — half a kilo of squeezed courgette, two eggs, 75g flour, something salty, something green — the fritter takes whatever the week gives you. Peas instead of broad beans, grated carrot for a third of the courgette, a little chopped smoked bacon, or a pinch of cumin and coriander if lunch needs waking up. Leftovers keep two days in the fridge and go into a lunchbox with a dollop of yoghurt very happily.

If your own glut has outrun even this recipe, the swap table is the traditional relief valve — we’ve written about that separately — and if you’re short of courgettes rather than drowning in them, someone near you certainly isn’t: find the growers and their boxes in the directory at /directory.