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A close up of the fritters with toppings ready to be served.

Cauliflower Fritters

These Cauliflower Fritters are a firm family favourite and are my go-to fritter recipe when entertaining. They are like a potato fritter but made with cauliflower (soft on the inside and crispy on the outside) and can be served as they are or with toppings. A fantastic finger food or snack and if made bigger, a great breakfast fritter! I'm always asked for this easy recipe....read on to see just how easy they are. I am sure it will be a fritter you will make again and again.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Cooling Time for Cauliflower: 20 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes
Course: Appetizer, Breakfast, Brunch, Canapes, Finger Food, Lunch, Nibbles
Cuisine: Australian
Keyword: cauliflower, cauliflower fritters, fritters, gluten-free fritters
Servings: 40
Calories: 55kcal
Author: Katrina | Katy's Food Finds

Equipment

  • Medium to Large Saucepan
  • Large Frying Pan

Ingredients

  • 1 medium cauliflower broken into 600g of cauliflower florets
  • 1 tsp fine sea salt
  • 225 g self raising flour (1 1/2 cups)
  • 125 g parmesan cheese finely grated
  • 4 tbsp Italian flat leaf parsley leaves chopped
  • 1 garlic clove (optional) crushed
  • 3 large or XL eggs lightly beaten
  • salt and freshly ground pepper to taste (approximately 1/4 tsp salt)
  • 80 ml olive oil (4 tbsp) for frying the fritters

Instructions

  • Break or chop the cauliflower into small even sized florets - you want approximately 600g florets. Place the florets into a saucepan that will hold them comfortably and fill with water to cover. Add the teaspoon of salt and bring to the boil. Cook until the cauliflower is just soft and a fork will pierce it easily. Keep an eye on it as you don’t want the cauliflower to overcook and be mushy. Drain the liquid, setting aside 1/4 cup which you may need to use later. Leave the drained cauliflower in the pot with the lid off to cool for 20 minutes.
  • Add the self-raising flour, grated parmesan, chopped parsley and garlic (if using - see notes) to the cauliflower in the pot and using a large spoon, mix and fold through gently until well combined. Try not to break up the cauliflower too much.
  • Add the lightly beaten eggs and continue to mix through until it forms a thick batter. At this stage the cauliflower will have broken up more but you will still have pieces of cauliflower throughout the batter (see photos in 'step by step instructions ructions'). The batter should be thick but not dry. If it's too dry, you can add a little of the reserved cooking liquid to help loosen it a little. The batter should hold its shape on a spoon (see photos). Add salt and pepper to season (I add just under 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a few grinds of black pepper). To test for seasoning, cook off one fritter and add more salt if required. At this stage, you can refrigerate the batter to use the next day or continue as follows:
  • Heat 80ml olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add spoonfuls of batter (a heaped teaspoon for bite sized fritters, or you can make larger ones) to the pan and cook for approximately 2 minutes on each side or until nicely golden. Allow space between each fritter. Reduce the heat to medium if browning too quickly. Once cooked, place on a plate or tray lined with paper towels. Repeat in batches with remaining batter.
    Serve warm or at room temperature.
    Makes approximately 40 bite sized fritters or 15-20 larger fritters.
  • Delicious served warm as they are, or cool to room temperature and add your preferred toppings.

Notes

Nutritional Values are based on one bite sized fritter when 40 fritters are made.

Tips and Tricks for Success:

This is a very forgiving recipe.
The biggest tip I can give you is to check your seasoning by cooking off one fritter first and testing. Then add more seasoning if required before proceeding to cook the rest of the fritters. I do this when making any fritter recipe.
When boiling the cauliflower in salted water, it takes approximately 12 minutes but keep checking the cauliflower as you want it to be just soft - not crunchy but not mushy. Having said that I did overcook them once so ended up with a smoother batter and they were still tasty so all is not lost.
Once you have boiled, drained and cooled the cauliflower slightly, the rest of the batter comes together in minutes.
I really enjoy these fritters warm as they are - they have a lovely crunch to the batter when warm. However, if topping them you will need to let them come to room temperature.
The recipe makes approximately 40 bite-sized fritters ideal for canapes/finger food, or 15 larger size fritters ideal for breakfast fritters. Any remaining batter can be refrigerated and cooked the following day so you don’t need to use all the batter at one time.
Cooked and cooled fritters freeze well too. Freeze in an airtight container in layers with baking paper between each layer.

Nutrition

Calories: 55kcal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 14mg | Sodium: 113mg | Potassium: 17mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 76IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 41mg | Iron: 1mg
Have you cooked one of my recipes? I’d love you to tag me @katysfoodfinds or #katysfoodfinds!