Basil OIl and Zucchini Fritters

This one is a two-for-one recipe. First up, we'll do the Basil Oil. Five ingredients.

For about 6 tbsp of finished product:

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 garlic clove
salt and pepper

Throw everything into a blender of food processor and whizz. That's it. Refrigerate until ready to use.

You end up with this really bright green oil that can go on just about anything. Fish, chicken , shrimp, some fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, even as a dressing.

Nutritional Breakdown

per tbsp of basil oil

60 cal

7g fat

0g carb

0g fiber

0g protein

Now for the zucchini fritters.  I always end up just sauteing zucchini with some herbs, which is good and all but I wanted to do something different.  I looked at a bunch of different recipes and tried a few techniques to come up with this recipe. They smell great when they are cooking and almost have the texture of crab cakes. These might even work to get your kids eating more veggies (thanks to the cheese!).

You need:

3 medium zucchini, grated (I use a combo of green and yellow)
1 oz Pecorino Romano or Parmesean Cheese finely grated (again...get a microplane!)
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
salt and pepper

1) This step is important.  Zucchini has ALOT of water in it.  We want fritters with a crispy outside, so we need to get some of the water out.  Grate your zucchini either with a food processor attachment or on a box grater.  Put in into a colander with a a tablespoon of kosher or sea salt.  Put the colander in a bowl and let it sit there.  Minimun = 20 minutes. Maximum = however long it takes you to be ready to cook. You'll be surprised how much liquid comes out (and you still need to squeeze the extra out by hand!)

I had a picture of all the green zucchini juice after it sat...but it got lost in cyber space.

2) Toss the dried zucchini in a bowl with everything else and mix it all up.  Now, form it into six patties...or fewer if you want big ones. Remember, there are no breadcrumbs to bind these, so smaller ones are easier to work with.

3) Put a touch of olive oil in a medium saute pan over MEDIUM heat (medium low if you have an electric stove like me that runs hot) and cook on each side (DON'T MOVE THEM AROUND) for 5 min until golden brown.

I had my fritters with a nice swordfish steak that I topped with the basil oil and a big old salad.

Nutritional Breakdown

per fritter from yield of six

36.5 cal

2g fat

3g carb

2g fiber

2.5g protein