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Vegan Butternut Squash Fritters {Chinese Style Vegetable Fritters}

These mixed vegetable fritters are golden, crispy, savory, and hearty. It's like fried potato fritters but with more varieties of vegetables and flavors! And it's also a great way to use up all the pumpkins, butternut squashes, or other scraps of vegetable leftover from the holiday season.

Growing up I loved all the different kinds of fritters my family members made - my mom likes to make them with squash, my grandma makes them with a mix of root vegetables and leafy vegetables, and my aunt's famous fritters are made only of potatoes and scallions but magically fluffy and crunchy at the same time!

With all the pumpkins and other hearty vegetables that I'm sure we've all got lying around following the holiday season, what better time to turn them into these crispy golden treats? This recipe is highly adaptable and you can use pretty much ANY vegetables you have and wanna get rid of! See the notes at the end for subsitutes.

I also LOVE the fact that you can find an exact same version or very simlimar version of this in pretty much every single culture - isn't food just a magical connection among us all? 

See the video below for a visual guide on how to make these and if you try this recipe please tag me on Instagram and Tiktok ^^


INGREDIENTS:

1 small butternut squahs, or measure 4 tightly packed cups shredded

1 large carrot, shredded

2 cup shredded brussels sprouts

3 - 4 scallions, chopped

1/2 cup chickpea flour

1/2 cup tapioca flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Cooking oil


TO MAKE:

- Cut the butternut squash in half, scoop out the seeds, peel, and use a grater to shred the squash and measure enough for 4 cups tightly packed;

- Shred all the veggies and chop the scallions, transfer everything into a large mixing bowl;

- Sprinkle in the salt, mix all the vegetables and give them a little "massage" to mix in the salt, let the vegetables sit for 15 - 20 minutes for some moisture to let out, I did not squeeze out any liquid here please see notes for this step if you're using different veggies;

- Add the flour and arrowroot powder or starch, mix everything well with your hands;

- Heat a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat, add enough oil to thinly cover the bottom;

- Once oil is hot, (a good way to test it is to dip a small piece of vegetable in the oil, if it starts to sizzle immediatly then it's ready, but don't heat it to the point that you see smoke either!) shape about 1/3 cup mixture into a round and flatten with your hands;

- Slide the fritter into the pan, let it crips up while you keep flattening it with your spatula;

- Fry each side for about 4-5 minutes until golden brown;

- Transfer fried fritters onto a plate lined with some paper towel to soak up any excess oil;

- Serve hot, I highly recommend with some chili oil, enjoy!


NOTES:

- Other vegetables you can use, pumpkin, potato, cabbage, carrot, and green beans, and basically any vegetables you can shred!

- And if you choose to use vegetables that are more watery, like zucchini, cucumber, etc, after you salt the vegetable mix there will be a lot more liquid coming out and you might want to squeeze out any excess juice so the batter won't end up too thin, I did not squeeze them in this recipe because all the veggies I used were quite "dry" and I needed the little moisture they let out to actually bind the flour;

- As for the flour, you can use any type of flour if you don't need it to be gluten-free.


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