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Air-Fried Greek-Inspired Chickpea Fritters with Tzatziki
I can't vouch for the authenticity of these fritters - I made the recipe up as I went along - but I can vouch for them being tasty!If you don't have an air-fryer, see recipe notes for alternative ways to cook the fritters.
Equipment
- Food processor
- Air-fryer
Ingredients
For the tzatziki
- 50 g cucumber
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 125 g Greek-style plant-based yoghurt
- 1 small clove of garlic minced
- 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 6 sprigs fresh dill removed from stalks and finely chopped
For the fritters
- 1 400g can of chickpeas
- 1 Tbsp ground flax
- 3 medium spring onions
- 4 halves sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup gram (chickpea) flour
- 10 sprigs of fresh parsley removed from stalks and finely chopped
- 1 Tbsp dried oregano
- salt and pepper a few grinds, or pinch, of each
- 1-2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
For the tzatziki
- Grate the cucumber and place in a sieve over a bowl. Sprinkle over the salt and stir to combine. Leave this draining for a few minutes while you prepare the rest of the tzatziki ingredients.
- Combine the remaining tzatziki ingredients in a bowl and stir together.
- Squeeze out the liquid from the cucumber with the back of a spoon, drain, and add this to the yoghurt mixture. Stir again and pop in the fridge while you make the fritters (*see notes).
For the fritters
- Drained and rins the chickpeas, reserving the aquafaba.
- Make a flax egg with the ground flax and 2.5 Tbsp of the aquafaba (don't throw the rest of the aquafaba away yet - you might need it).
- Wash and finely chop the spring onions.
- Dice the sun-dried tomatoes.
- Add the chickpeas to a food processor and blitz for about 30 seconds, just to break them up.
- Now add the remaining fritter ingredients except the oil to the food processor and blitz for 10-15 seconds at a time until a thick batter forms. The batter should be a similar consistency to falafel mix - thick and slightly sticky. If the mixture is too dry, add 1 Tbsp more of the aquafaba at a time and pulse again.
- Put the fritter batter in the fridge for 15 minutes.
- Add 1 Tbsp of the oil to the air-fryer (*see notes) and brush to fully coat the bottom of the pan.
- Remove the batter from the fridge and, using a cookie scoop, divide the batter into 10 balls. Place each ball into the air-fryer pan and press down gently with your fingers so they form little patties.
- Air fry for 10 minutes, then brush the top of the fritters with a little extra oil and the flip them over. Cook for another five minutes.
- Serve as desired - I enjoyed these on a bed of rocket and red cabbage with some olives and pitta bread, but they are also great in a wrap!
Notes
The tzatziki always tastes better once it has had time to sit, so make it the day before you plan to eat it if you can. My air-fryer doesn't have any temperature settings (it's a Tefal Actifry Express), but according to their website, it cooks at approx. 180c. To bake the fritters instead, add them to a preheated oven at 180c fan (~350f) for 20-25 minutes, flipping after 15 minutes. Or you could shallow-pan fry the fritters, but you will need double the amount of oil. Fry them for 3-5 minutes per side.
