Oven-Baked Zucchini Fritters with Feta and Dill

It is a shame that for as long as I have been blogging I haven’t shared a baked zucchini fritter recipe. Because growing up, courgette fritters (as my mom called them) were one of those dishes that my mother made very often during the summer months. At the time we had a small vegetable garden, where she grew tomatoes, peppers, zucchinis, and eggplants.

Every Sunday morning, she would pick up some zucchinis from her garden, bake zucchini fritters and serve them with fried eggs and a small portion of salad. It was a favorite in our house.

The truth is that I completely forgot about this recipe until I saw freshly picked zucchinis in our farmer’s market the other day. It had been years since I had eggs with zucchini patties. So I picked a couple of zucchinis, found my mother’s recipe in her hand-written cookbook, and made her famous zucchini feta fritters recipe. As one can imagine, it was one of those moments that felt like traveling back in time.

Can you bake zucchini fritters?

If you are used to eating the fried version of zucchini bites you might be surprised to hear that you can totally cook them in the oven with a few minor changes.

I personally think that they baked version of this recipe is not only healthier but also doesn’t taste much different than its fried version.

This recipe makes a great healthy zucchini appetizer

As I mentioned earlier, these make a great appetizer to serve along with vegetable and meat dishes, especially during the summer season when zucchini is in season.

And if you are confused with the terminology, baked zucchini patties, baked zucchini latkes, baked zucchini cakes, baked zucchini puffs, or baked zucchini pancakes are all the same recipe.

Ingredients for Baked Zucchini Pancakes:

In her recipe, my mother made more of Turkish / Greek zucchini fritters recipe by mixing grated zucchini with eggs, feta, scallions, dill, and flour and fry the fritters in vegetable oil.

However, to make my version here a bit healthier, in addition to baking them in the oven, I made a few minor ingredient changes to her recipe.

For one thing, my version here uses no flour. I can almost hear you say, “Zucchini Fritters without flour?” Yup, that is true.

Instead, I used Panko (aka Japanese breadcrumbs). I also added some rolled oats to give it a little bit more of a body.

Also, as in every recipe with feta cheese, make sure to taste the cheese before adding salt to the recipe. In this dish, I used only a ½ teaspoon salt to help extract the juices from the zucchini. My feta cheese was quite salty so I didn’t add any more salt. But if yours is less salty, adjust the amount of salt accordingly.

I served my fritters with a quick homemade yogurt sauce, but you can serve them by themselves too.

How to Make Oven Baked Zucchini Fritters:

1. Preheat the oven: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Prepare the zucchini: Shred the zucchini using the large holes of a box grater. Place the shredded zucchini in the middle of a clean kitchen towel, collect it from the sides and squeeze as much liquid as possible. You should have about 2 to 2 1/2 cups of zucchini. Set it in a bowl.
3. Add in the rest of the ingredients: Add in garlic, olive oil, baking powder, black pepper, eggs, feta cheese, Panko bread crumbs, scallions, and dill in the bowl with zucchini.
4. Scoop on to a baking sheet: Using a spoon or medium-sized ice cream scoop, scoop out about 2 tablespoons of the batter and drop onto the baking sheet. Continue until you run out of the batter.

5. Bake in the oven: Bake for 22-25 minutes or until golden. Take it out of the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes before serving.
6. Make the yogurt sauce: If using, make the yogurt sauce by mixing all ingredients in a bowl.
7. Serve: Place a few of the freshly baked zucchini bites on a plate and top them off with the sauce. Serve.

Variations:

• Gluten-free: If you want to make them gluten-free, be sure to use gluten-free breadcrumbs (instead of panko) and oats.
• Use different kinds of cheese: You can change it up by using shredded cheddar or parmesan instead of feta cheese. I promise parmesan zucchini bites are just as good as its version with feta cheese.
• Zucchini Bites made low carb: I haven’t tried this but I have seen some recipes that uses almond flour instead of breadcrumbs. I’ll be sure to give it a try next time.
• Use different herbs: The classic Greek zucchini fritters recipe uses dill, but you can swap dill with fresh parsley as well. And if you are not a fan or have no herbs on hand, feel free to omit using them.

Other Recipe Ideas for Shredded Zucchini:

Think about what else you can make with grated zucchini? I’ve got you covered. Here are a few more ideas to put that leftover shredded zucchini to good use:

• Vegan Zucchini Bread
• Almond Flour Zucchini Bread
• Classic Zucchini Bread

Other Zucchini Recipes You Might Like

• 5-Ingredient Zucchini Noodles
• Zucchini Lasagna
• Zucchini Fettuccine with Kale
• Skinny Shrimp Scampi (with Zucchini Noodles)

Oven-Baked Zucchini Fritters with Feta and Dill

By Aysegul Sanford

Yields: 10 fritters

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 25 mins

Total Time: 40 mins

These Oven-Baked Zucchini Fritters are flavored with feta cheese, fresh dill, and scallions. In my version, instead of using flour I used Panko breadcrumbs and ground oats as well as eggs to bind all the ingredients. You can serve them with fried eggs or as a side dish with any of your meat and vegetable dishes.

5 from 4 votes

Print Recipe

Ingredients

For the Zucchini Fritters

• 2 medium-sized zucchini 2 to 2 1/2 cups after shredded, peeled and grated
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 2 large eggs
• ¾ cup crumbled feta cheese
• 2 tablespoon rolled oats
• 1 cup Panko Bread Crumbs
• 2 scallions chopped thinly
• 2 tablespoons fresh dill chopped – plus more as garnish

For the Yogurt Sauce: (optional)

• 1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice freshly squeezed
• ½ teaspoon salt

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

To make the zucchini fritters:

• Shred the zucchini using the large holes of a box grater. Place the shredded zucchini in the middle of a clean kitchen towel, collect it from the sides and squeeze as much liquid as possible. You should have about 2 to 2 1/2 cups of zucchini. Set it in a bowl.
• Mix together the grated zucchini, garlic, olive oil, baking powder, black pepper, eggs, feta cheese, Panko bread crumbs, scallions, and dill in a bowl. Using a spoon or medium-sized ice cream scoop, scoop out about 2 tablespoons of the batter and drop onto the baking sheet. Continue until you run out of the batter.
• Bake for 22-25 minutes or until golden. Take it out of the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes before serving.

For the yogurt sauce:

• Whisk together all the ingredients in a bowl.
• Serve zucchini fritters with the yogurt sauce and more dill on the side.

Video

Notes

• If you watch the how-to video above, you will see that I placed the shredded zucchini in a colander and sprinkled it with salt to get its juices out. You can use both the cloth method or the colander method. The reason why I changed it is that I want to make sure I am not adding too much salt into the recipe, especially because I am using feta cheese. 
  While you can use both methods to get the juices out, I highly recommend giving a taste to your feta cheese and adjusting the amount of salt you put in the recipe accordingly.
• Please refer to the blog post for make-ahead and freezing instructions.

Nutrition

Calories: 107kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 44mg | Sodium: 469mg | Potassium: 178mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 203IU | Vitamin C: 8mg | Calcium: 131mg | Iron: 1mg

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: Turkish

Keywords: Baked Zucchini Fritters, Zucchini Patties Baked

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This post was originally published in 2016. It is updated with the additional helpful information in Jun 2020. No changes to the originally published recipe were made.