I’ve certainly eaten my fair share of fritters in my time. My history with fritters is all thanks to my mother who often cooked them for us growing up as snacks. She would make a batch of them and leave them in the fridge for us to grab while we were staring into the fridge looking for a snack – they usually never lasted the day.
You have probably noticed my fascination with fritters thanks to my posts featuring these Roasted Cauliflower and Provolone ones, Halloumi and Vegetable ones, and Corn and Zucchini ones. So, it can’t hurt to add another one to the list of Chew Town fritters, with this Mushroom and Asparagus version!
The key to coming up with your own combination of fritter flavours is understanding the cooking time of your ingredients. Those ingredients like mushroom, asparagus and zucchini don’t take long at all to cook in a pan, so when the cooking time of a fritter is only a few minutes either side these types of ingredients don’t need to be pre-cooked when added to the batter. However, for the cauliflower and provolone fritters, as cauliflower takes longer to cook than the cooking time of a fritter, it needs to be pre-cooked before going into the batter.
Looking into the fridge the other night I spied a fantastic bunch of asparagus I had bought at the markets on the weekend and sitting next to it was a bag full of earthy swiss brown mushrooms. A quick search of my fridge and freezer led me to the realisation that somehow we had eaten all the protein in the house without a restock. It didn’t take long for my mind to lead itself in the direction of fritters. I love them because you throw everything together in a large bowl then fry them. A pretty quick and easy method for midweek cooking when you are tired and can’t be bothered standing in the kitchen for too long.
I hadn’t ever made fritters with the combination of asparagus and mushroom, somehow I knew it would either be great… or terrible. Lucky for me it was the former. I loved the combination of the two – the addition of the mushroom turned the fritters an earthy tone and the taste of the mushroom and asparagus together were a perfect flavourful match.
Mushroom and Asparagus Fritters
2 spring onions, finely sliced
6 swiss brown mushrooms, diced
50g halloumi cheese, 1cm dice
1 bunch asparagus, wooded ends trimmed and thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup plain flour
3 eggs
2/3 cup pouring cream
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil for shallow frying
Place onion, mushrooms, halloumi, asparagus, garlic and lemon juice in a large bowl and mix till well combined. Add lemon juice, flour, eggs and cream and stir until combined and a thick batter forms.
Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large heavy fry pan on medium high heat. Once heated drop heaped tablespoon sized portions of the batter into the fry pan. Cook for a few minutes until the underside is golden, then flip and cook the other side till golden. Remove and place on kitchen towel. Repeat with remaining batter ensuring you keep the oil topped up when necessary.
NB: I wanted these fritters to be more uniform so I dropped the batter into egg rings when first placed in the pan to cook
Love zucchini fritters. Only problem is I never stop at a couple and tend to eat much of the batch in one sitting. For conversion for me do I just substitute plain flour for a basic gluten free mix flour?
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Lol. I mean mushroom fritters! Far out bride brain is maxed out!
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Is it terrible for me to say I've never really had a fritter before? I don't know what rock I'm hiding under. They do look delicious, and for a great snack!
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Fritters are so wonderful to serve with a salad. Is often a vegetarian go to dish for me. I would of never thought of pairing asparagus and mushroom together, so glad they worked. I do love my mushrooms.
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I would easily make a meal out of 2 to 3 of these! So good!
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Ooh! I do love a good fritter! And who can stop at one? great combo of ingredients Amanda.
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I love fritters but for some reason have never thought to include mushrooms in them but I can't think why! I can only imagine the awesome flavour it would add. Great recipe!
Such a wonderful flavour combination- I love asparagus and mushrooms together! Thanks for sharing, I will certainly be trying this tasty recipe soon…
-Shannon
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These look super yummmm and would love to have this for lunch 🙂 I'm actually new to fritters hehe ~ only just started eating corn fritters 😛
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