Five Minute Fritter Recipe - Vegan and Food Allergy Alternatives Provided

My fritters plated up with ketchup

My husband looked at me this evening and asked me if we were going to have dinner. It hadn't really occurred to me, as we had a hot lunch that he had cooked on the barbecue, and he told me that he was hungry.

Having three guys in the house with ravenous appetites (two teenage boys included) is sometimes a challenge to come up with things that will fill them up. Because I allocate one lot of meat for the day (and some vegetarian meals as substitutes sometimes) to stretch our budget - I was a little bewildered. Not for long though, I decided to brainstorm.

One of my favourite places to get recipes from is Taste. I also go to Allrecipes for inspiration as well. I have a large collection of really lovely cookbooks, but sometimes going online you just can't beat it. I leave my laptop open with the recipe and I go back to it every so often to check I have added the right ingredients. So tonight it was fritters.

A basic fritter recipe:
(metric measures are assumed in this recipe)
Ingredients:

3 cups of self raising flour (or plain flour with appropriate amount of baking powder added)
2 cups of milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vegetable stock (optional)

To this I added some grated carrot, a chopped onion, some corn kernels and grated cheese - so they were a vegetarian option. If you are vegan then you can substitute the cheese for tofu (slice it thinly) and use soy flour as a substitute. Replace one egg with one tablespoon of soy flour and one tablespoon of water. You can also add cooked sliced meats, or deli meats if you so desire, or other grated or finely chopped vegetables to create a bit of difference.

Method:

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, and then heat a large frypan with some oil. Spoon out a tablespoon of the batter onto the frypan per fritter, and flip until browned on both sides, and cooked through thoroughly. The batter will no longer appear wet on the sides when cooked through, if in doubt, slice one open to ensure batter is cooked.

Serve with condiments if desired, and a side salad.

If you have coeliac disease or are lactose intolerant you can substitute gluten free self raising flour, lactose free milk, rice milk or soy milk. I use soy milk as I am lactose intolerant. I also like to use free range eggs (I pick these up at a good price from the local farmers markets).

My husband and my teenage boys ate them, and enjoyed them. My husband had two and then informed me that he was full and couldn't eat any more, so they were a budget success - and I also fed them successfully a vegetarian meal!!