I don’t know how I manage it but every few months, I seem to end up with a mega surplus some random item.
Spoiler alert (if you just want to skip to the recipe) – I had a carrot surplus hence the gluten free carrot and pumpkin fritters.
I remember just after my youngest was born, I’d ordered our fruit and vege box for the week and was in such a brain fog, I couldn’t’ think of how to use all the different things so I just kept replacing the set-box items for bananas (which I knew I could at least freeze).
The order came a few days later and was pretty much an entire box of bananas. Sadly that’s not the worst thing I did in those early days of new-mum-haze (once stood in front of my house pressing the car key wondering why on earth the front door wouldn’t unlock!).
My most recent oversupply – carrots.
I somehow ended up with about 3kg of them. Now we like carrots but 3kg for a week – I don’t know if Peter Rabbit could get through those sorts of quantities.
So I got experimenting of course.
First came carrot cake bliss balls, then I whipped up a batch of carrot, apple and banana muffins.
But the carrots just kept coming so I turned to my old-faithful – fritters and gluten free carrot and pumpkin fritters were born.
I am a bit fan of fritters.
Here’s why they’re so awesome:
- Easy to make
- You can pass them off as pancakes
- Can hide veggies in them
- They freeze well
- Great for snacks as well as breakfast/lunch
- Versatile
- Flexible – use different flours, milks, veggies (cook and mash or grate)
I used buckwheat in my fritters because it adds a nice nutty flavour but also, I like to mix up the different flours that I use.
As my resident nutritionist Shannon Stokes says in Crawler Cuisine to Toddler Tucker, because different grains have different nutritional profiles, it’s really good to mix them up in our diets and not rely too heavily on any one in particular.
Personally, I always have regular (although really only use for bread or playdough), spelt and buckwheat and sometimes amaranth (I’m still learning how to use it) but I think if you’re just starting out with different flours, get some spelt – it’s the closest thing to regular flour and can pretty much replace is 1:1 in any baking recipe (other than bread – that’s a lesson for another day).
Unfortunately I didn’t have much luck with the kids with these although of course I’ll keep going with the freezer supply (they freeze well in a ziplock bag). The problem was that once they took a bite they could see the grated carrot.
If your kids are carrot-ophobic too, you could try steaming the carrot/pumpkin first and using it in puree form instead.
I loved them plain with a spread of butter or toasted – I just popped them in the toaster – piled with smashed avo, feta and a poached egg.
What about you? Have you experimented with different types of flour?
NOTE: I get my buckwheat from The Wholefood Collective. It’s biodynamically-grown in Aus using sustainable methods, and is frozen (instead of fumigated, which is standard industry practice) to keep it super fresh and retain the highest quantity of nutrients. Additionally, this Aussie-grown buckwheat is processed in a segregated gluten-free facility (perfect for coeliacs).
Gluten free carrot and pumpkin fritters
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups buckwheat flour (if you don’t need them to be gluten-free you could use spelt flour or just regular white flour)
- 2 free-range eggs
- 1 ¼ cups full-fat milk
- 1 cup grated pumpkin
- 1 cup grated carrot
- Olive oil
Instructions
- Whisk together the flour, eggs and milk until smooth.
- Fold through the pumpkin & carrot.
- Lightly coat the bottom of a large frying pan with olive oil and turn on to medium heat.
- Cook tablespoons of the batter until bubbles appear (about 2 minutes), then flip and cook for another minute or two on the other side.
- Transfer to a cloth to rest and repeat with the remaining batter
