Easy and healthy zucchini patties, cakes, fritters or Cucuzze in Calabrian dialect, whatever you wanna call them really, made with shredded zucchini, panko bread crumbs, scallions and served with tzatziki sauce.
- 4 zucchini or yellow squash (medium size)
- 3 scallions - thinly sliced
- 2 eggs -organic
- 1 cup panko bread crumbs -plain
- 2 pinches sea salt
- 2 tbsp fresh dill or oregano - chopped
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp fresh chives -snipped
- 1 cup tzatziki sauce or Greek yogurt ( for serving)
Make the tzatziki sauce in advance according to this recipe and refrigerate until needed.
Shred the zucchini or squash through a cheese grater and add it to a large colander. Sprinkle with a good pinch of sea salt al over and toss to mix well.
Place the colander over a bowl or your kitchen sink and allow it to sit for about 15 minutes for the salt to pull out all the moisture.
Use your hands and squeeze the remaining water out of the zucchini as much as you can then add it to a dry bowl.
Important: taste the zucchini at this point to see if it needs more salt, It might not!
Add the scallions, eggs, panko bread crumbs, fresh dill and black pepper to the bowl and mix everything to combine well.
Heat up a large cast iron skillet over medium flame and a drop of olive, just enough to coat the bottom and your fritters won’t stick.
Take a spoonful of the zucchini mixture and add it to the hot skillet. Use the back of the spoon to flatten the patties down to your desired thickness. Repeat the process but make sure to not overcrowd the pan and leave about 1 inch of space between the fritters while cooking so they crisp up nicely without steaming. Work in batches and add a little more olive oil in between if needed.
Transfer the zucchini cakes to a paper towel lined plate and serve garnished with the chives and tzatziki sauce, or plain creamy Greek yogurt and lemon wedges.
More Recipes to Make:
Goat Cheese Tomato Tart
Crispy Crab Cakes
Shrimp Polenta Cakes
I don;t see a recipe for the Tzatziki sauce above it says to use your recipe?
Hi Martha, the Tzatziki sauce is linked inside the recipe and also at the top of the post. Not sure why it isn’t showing up for you. Here is the link anyway 🙂 https://ciaoflorentina.com/tzatziki-sauce-recipe/
Beautiful! I call them pancakes, and I made savory ones a lot with zucchini, especially when I have a lot growing in the garden. I love to play around with them, sometimes adding chopped walnuts, or mixing in finely grated carrot. I’ve never served them with tzaziki, though. What a revelation!
Haha Mimi, it is so hot in SoCal and Tzatziki is like the perfect condiment to add to anything right now. Chilled, refreshing and healthy, can’t be beat. I need to try adding walnuts next time to the zucchini patties, now that’s a revelation for me 😉