Light & perfectly spiced Curried Carrot Fritters. Quick, simple & delicious and perfect for when you have an overabundance of carrots! Naturally vegan, egg-free, gluten-free & oil-free.
Enter my bright and cheerful-looking Curried Carrot Fritters! Carrots are a vegetable that I always have in my fridge. No matter what's going on you will find some lurking in the drawer. They get used so often and as with onions and garlic, if I run out I feel a mild sense of panic, so I make sure it never happens.
Despite being used a lot, carrots don't often play a starring role in my meals, at least not since my Creamy Carrot Soup, but I can never resist the fluffy, fronded bunches at my local greengrocer and often end up buying way more than I need.
Jump to:
So a few weeks ago, in an effort to use up my overabundance of carrots before they got droopy, these Curried Carrot Fritters happened.
You can feel really good about making and eating these Curried Carrot Fritters because they are:
- Filled with vegetables
- Made with healthy, protein-packed & gluten-free chickpea flour
- Completely oil-free
- Extremely low in fat
- Only 84 calories each!
How to make carrot fritters
These Curried Carrot Fritters are extremely easy to make. If you have a food processor be sure to utilize the grating attachment as it makes light work of preparing the vegetables.
Once everything is grated and chopped it's just a case of combining with the chickpea flour, spices and a drop of water to make a thick, droppable batter. Let it rest for 10 minutes then cook in a frypan, on a griddle or in the oven.
What to serve with carrot fritters
Colourful, crisp and perfectly spiced carrot fritters are so versatile! Here are some ideas for how to serve them:
- Serve as an entrée or lunch with a salad or fries
- Use as a veggie burger substitute in a bun
- Serve as an appetizer with some mango chutney, vegan mayo or green sauce
- Stuff in pita bread or no yeast flatbread with some fresh salad leaves for a light lunch
- Eat cold for a snack
- Add to lunchboxes
Variations
The finished fritters are absolutely packed with flavour and are really versatile.
Grated potato can be used in place of some or all of the carrot, and as for the spices, I use a combination of many different spices to give maximum punch but these are totally customizable. The blend listed in the recipe is how I like my fritters, using what I regularly have in my pantry but in this recipe, you have complete control.
If you don't have one of the spices or if there is one you don't care for, omit it. You can use something else instead or not. They are good with just the curry powder and none of the other spices if that is all you have.
Sometimes I add cilantro, sometimes I add parsley and sometimes I use the finely chopped green carrot tops. Play around with what you like best.
A long as you keep the carrot, chickpea flour and water at the same ratio the fritters will work.
Storing Leftovers
- Storage: Leftover carrot fritters will keep in the fridge for 4 or 5 days.
- Freezing: Separate them between layers of parchment paper and freeze for up to 3 months. Allow to defrost overnight in the fridge or cook straight from the freezer.
- Reheating: Cook them straight from the freezer or defrost them first. Reheat in a dry frypan/skillet on medium heat for about 5 minutes on each side (7 to 8 minutes each side if frozen), or pop them on a baking tray in the oven until they are slightly crispy and heated through. 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes, 25 minutes if frozen.
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Recipe
Curried Carrot Fritters
Author:Ingredients
- 300g / 3 large carrots
- 1 medium onion
- 2 cloves garlic , finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons curry powder
- 100g / 1 cup chickpea flour , sometimes called besan or gram flour. A garbanzo fava bean blend flour works well too.
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 big handful / ½ cup fresh cilantro, parsley or carrot tops , chopped finely
- ¼ teaspoon ground coriander (see notes for spice alternatives)
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds , or ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon fennel seeds , or ¼ teaspoon ground fennel
- 60mls / ¼ cup water
- ½ teaspoon chili flakes , optional
INSTRUCTIONS
- Grate the onion and the carrot. The grater attachment on a food processor does this job quickly and easily.
- In a large bowl add the onion, carrot and garlic and mix well.
- Add everything else except the water and stir together really well making sure all the spices are distributed well then add the water and stir again. You should have a really thick batter.
- At this stage leave it to sit for at least 10 minutes but longer is fine.
- If cooking in the oven preheat to 400 °F (200°C). Line a baking tray with parchment paper or a Silpat and drop the mixture in roughly ⅓ cup amounts then flatten them evenly to about ½ inch thick. Cook for 20-25 minutes flipping them at halfway through the cooking time.
- If cooking on a griddle or in a fry pan, heat over a medium heat, add a little oil if you don't have a greta non-stick pan, then add roughly ⅓ cup amounts, flattening them evenly to about ½ inch thick. Cook for 5 - 6 minutes each side or until golden brown. You can keep them warm in a low oven while you finish them all.
NOTES
Storage: Leftover fritters will keep for up to 4 days in the fridge. They also freeze well. Allow to defrost then warm through in a frypan over medium heat or bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until heated through. They are also good cold!
NUTRITION
Nutritional information is provided for convenience. The data is a computer generated estimate and should be used as a guide only.
This recipe was originally published on May 23rd, 2017. I've updated the post and now I am republishing it for you. The recipe itself remains the same. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for following A Virtual Vegan!
Hebe says
Hi would these work with half a cup of gram flour and half a cup of brown rice flour? I on,y have half a cup of gram flour left!
Thank you
A Virtual Vegan says
I have never tried them with rice flour so I'm not sure how they would turn out. Sorry!
Felix says
What is the role of the flax seed in this recipe? I don’t have any and am wondering what I can substitute it for. I am also not vegan. Thank you!
Melanie McDonald says
Flaxseed swells and gets sticky when wet so was in this recipe to act as a glue and hold everything together. To be honest with you though, this is an old recipe and if I were to develop it now I'd probably not include it. I'm 99.9% sure it will be fine without it because the chickpea flour should hold it all together well enough anyway. I'll look at making them again soon and checking for sure but you should be absolutely fine to omit it. Even if it makes a bit of difference it will be very minimal. Hope that helps!
Julie says
I got a bunch of carrots with their greens in my CSA share and found this recipe. I am so glad I did! They are literally the best thing I have eaten in recent memory. SO GOOD!
Ekta Sareen says
I made above for dinner!!! Super tasty!!! I had made wth potato earlier but not wth same ingredients as above! I happened to chop onions n add. And I also added mixed herbs :)
Christine says
Yummo, that was delish. And quick and healthy! Such a great one to use up leftover carrots and whatever is in the pantry. Thank you, Mel!
Jawahar says
Love this recipe. I was not looking for anything vegan in particular, but a healthy recipe that also used carrot greens. Delicious!
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you! I'm really pleased you're enjoying the fritter recipe!
Fi says
I made these with self raising flour as thats all I had so the texture came out all gloopy. I also just used the random spices that I had in the cupboard... despite that these are delicious. I served with an avo, tomato and sweetcorn salsa and a fruit chutney. I will definitely be making these again... but with the right flour
Susan says
I don’t have chickpea flour, can i use tapioca flour instead, i cant get out to shops?
A Virtual Vegan says
Tapioca flour won't work in a recipe like this. All purpose flour or wholewheat flour would be ok though.
Sue Kendzierski says
What about oat flour
A Virtual Vegan says
I've never tried it so don't know.
Rebecca Goodson says
Absolutely delicious! My seven year old loved them - my husband too, even though he didn't think that he would. Thank you!
A Virtual Vegan says
That's great! I'm really pleased you all enjoyed them!
Natalie says
Really great!
Joyce says
Love this recipe! The fritters are so tasteful yet so healthy :) This is my new go to lunch instead of bread. Also going to try it out with other veggies and spices. Thanks for sharing!
Tim Granger says
I stumbled upon this when googling a recipe for ‘curried carrot fritters’ which I dreamed up over breakfast this morning.
I made them almost as written, my only difference was omitting the fennel seeds and using buckwheat flour instead of chickpea flour.
I served it with a raita (I am not vegan or even vegetarian and I have no plan to ever be, but I don’t eat meat three nights a week) and a squeeze of lime juice. The lime juice in particular helped them as I baked them.
Utterly delicious. Thank you!
Kate says
Delicious! I found this recipe while searching for something to do with my carrot tops. I’ve already shared it with3 people! I plan to try it with zucchini next
Melanie McDonald says
Thank you! I'm really pleased you enjoyed the recipe Kate!
Kk says
Fantastic! Found this recipe through a frantic internet search for a dinner recipe and just subscribed! These are wonderful - thank you for sharing.
Melanie McDonald says
Thank you! I'm really pleased you are enjoying the fritters. Thanks so much for stopping by to leave feedback!
Zoe says
These fritters have become a total staple for me, I love having them with my salad lunches! I make the whole recipe and then just keep the uncooked dough in the fridge for a few days pan cooking them fresh as I go. I have also tried them with pea flour and zucchini both come out nicely. Thank you!
Melanie McDonald says
I'm so pleased you are enjoying the recipe Zoe. I love them with salad too. It's good to know they work well with pea flour!
Paul Watson says
Tried these almost the way they were written. Didn't have chickpea flour so I used all purpose. Also I was cooking something else in the oven so I had it at 450 instead of 400.Worked out fine.They were very good. My wife and I loved them.
Julie says
I don't have the time right before dinner to prep and bake these...Could you make them ahead in the morning and bake them before the evening meal? Or would it be better to bake them in the morning and reheat again in the oven for evening?
Also I dehydrated onion from my garden in the summer, could I substitute the powdered onion for fresh and if so would I have to modify anything else in the recipe?
Thanks!
A Virtual Vegan says
You could make the batter up in the morning or the day before and it would be fine kept covered in the fridge. They do reheat well in the oven too though, and they freeze well.
The fresh onion adds a lot of flavour and texture. I'm not sure dried onion would do the same. Plus the fresh onion adds moisture. If you don't use it you will probably find that you need to add a little more liquid to get the batter to come together as well.
Sandy G. says
Yummy!!! And very easy. I had all ingedients on hand except the cilantro/parsely, so I skipped it. Cooked them on the stove witb a tiny bit of oil. Wish I could add a photo, they are pretty. Love the spicy flavors, especially the fennel seeds. Served with a little leftover indian restaurant coriander sauce (the green one, made with cilantro) to make up for the missing cilantro. Will definitely make this again.
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm so pleased you enjoyed them Sandy. I bet they are lovely with coriander sauce. If you use Instagram you can share a picture there and use the #avirtualvegan and tag me @avirtualvegan . I try to re-share all of my reader remake pictures in my Instagram stories. You can share pictures on my Facebook page too https://www.facebook.com/avirtualvegan/ . Thanks so much for stopping by to leave feedback. Its much appreciated!
Jeanette says
Loved this recipe! My husband and son loved it too! I added a little hummus and mashed avocado on top when served! My son and husband came back for seconds! I will definitely make this on a regular basis!
I had all the spices on hand so the flavor was amazing! I added a little hot water to the ground flax seeds and let it sit by itself while I prepared everything else! I only used a tiny bit of oil then spread it around with a paper towel just to make sure it wouldn't stick. The flax seed was enough to make it nice and crunchy!
I look forward to browsing through your recipe collection!
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm so glad you all enjoyed them! Watch out for a new spin on this recipe next week!
Lita Watson says
Can i combine onion and celery to replace the fennel seeds ingredient in this recipe? Will in have any change in flavor or texture of this dish?
A Virtual Vegan says
You could just leave the fennel seeds out if you don't have any. Or use a bit of ground fennel. You could also add some grated or very finely chopped celery to the onion like you suggest. This recipe is pretty flexible with add ins. It will change the flavour a little bit by adding celery instead and you might need to use a tiny bit less water as celery, like onion is pretty watery. I also wouldn't use more than one celery stick.You just want it to be a really thick batter. If it does get a bit too wet just add a a little bit of extra chickpea flour. Hope that helps!