How to make a vegetarian main dish recipe with radishes? Turn them into toothsome chickpea flour fritters with carrots and leeks. And what to do with the radish tops? They find a home in the accompanying herby dipping sauce with roasted garlic, yogurt, tahini & lemon. These spring vegetable fritters will appeal to those who love the flavor of onion rings – but they work in a lot more vegetable variety than onion rings, and protein from the besan or chickpea flour used to bind them. Because of that they’re gluten-free – and the combination can be made vegan with non-dairy yogurt.
Radish, Carrot, & Leek Fritters with Roasted Garlic & Parsley Yogurt Sauce
Crispy & tender fritters full of shredded springtime vegetables served with a cool, garlicky herb dipping sauce.
Servings: 6
Calories: 291kcal
Equipment
- grater or food processor
- sieve or colander
- large bowl
- half-sheet pans
- cooling racks or paper toweling
- deep-frying thermometer
- 1 T cookie scoop or #70 or #60 disher
Ingredients
Fritter vegetables:
- 225 g radishes (one bunch)
- 225 g carrots (about three)
- 285 g leek (about one large) white and light green parts
- 6 g salt
Fritter batter
- 260 g besan or chickpea flour
- 6 g baking powder
- 6 g salt
- 1 g cayenne
- 5 g garlic minced
For deep-frying:
- Oil high-temperature oil of your choice
For the yogurt sauce:
- 1 head garlic medium
- 4 g olive oil
- 1 bunch radish greens optional, if they look okay
- 50 g fresh parsley (about one small bunch) soft stems okay
- 260 g plain yogurt
- 32 g tahini
- 7 g lemon juice fresh
- 6 g salt
Instructions
To make the roasted garlic for the yogurt sauce:
- Preheat the oven to 400F (200C). While the oven is preheating, remove some of the outer skin from the head of garlic. Check the bottom of the garlic for cleanliness and scrub the root end with a vegetable brush if there's dirt that needs to be removed. Carefully slice off enough of the top of the head horizontally to expose the surface of most of the cloves. Place the head of garlic in a small baking dish that has a lid, or for one that lacks a lid, get out some foil. Add water to come about one-quarter of the way up the bulb. Pour 4 g (1 t) olive oil over the surface of the cloves. Cover the dish and place in the preheated oven. Roast one hour. Remove and set aside to cool. (This can be done in advance.)
To prepare the vegetables and greens for the fritters and sauce:
- If you have radishes with greens, separate the radish greens from the radishes. Pick through the radish greens, discarding any that are discolored, very broken, or becoming transparent. Wash the remaining radish greens by immersing them in water, agitating them gently, and lifting them out. Avoid running water directly over them as they bruise very easily. Continue, changing the water each time, until there’s no longer grit in the water. Radish greens tend to be quite muddy, so this often takes five waters. Drain them and dry them in a salad spinner, by whirling them in a mesh greens bag, or blotting gently with a kitchen towel. Wash the parsley, dry, and trim any discolored root ends. Gently scrub the radishes with a vegetable brush. The carrots can take a more vigorous scrubbing. Top and tail the radishes and carrots. (All this can be done in advance.)
To make the fritters:
- Coarsely shred the radishes and carrots. If using a food processor, use the medium shredding disk and put the radishes and carrots through the small feed tube. Once the radishes and carrots are shredded, set a strainer into the mouth of a deep, narrow bowl and turn the shredded radishes and carrots into it. Sprinkle 6 g (1 t) of salt over the two vegetables and mix thoroughly. Place a small plate over the vegetables and move the bowl and strainer to the refrigerator. Weight the plate with a heavy object to express the vegetables' moisture. Allow the vegetables to drain in the refrigerator for half an hour. (The radishes and carrots can be left to drain for up to twenty-four hours, if necessary; the radishes won't be as beautiful at that point, but it won't be noticeable in the finished fritters.)
- While the radishes and carrots drain, wash the leek or leeks. Split them lengthwise and wash again, fanning them under running water, to remove any lingering dirt in the interstices. Drain. If you have a 2 mm slicing disc for your food processor, the leeks can be sliced through the feed tube using it. Otherwise, slice the leeks thinly crosswise by hand, in about 2 mm slices. Set aside. (This can be done in advance.)
- Mince 5 g of garlic and set it aside as well.
- When the radishes and carrots have drained for half an hour, remove the weight from the plate. Remove the draining assembly from the refrigerator and move it to a work surface. Press down on the plate until the vegetables stop releasing liquid into the bowl. Remove the strainer from the bowl. Pour the drained vegetable liquid into a container and set it aside in case it’s needed to moisten the fritter mixture. Wash the large bowl and dry it thoroughly.
- In the now-empty large bowl, place the besan, baking powder, 6 g salt, cayenne, and minced garlic. Stir thoroughly with a large wooden spoon. Add the sliced leeks and toss with the spoon until they’re thoroughly coated with the besan. Break up the radish and carrot mixture from the strainer with your hands and sprinkle it over the besan and leek mixture. Mix thoroughly; you may need to use your hands at this point in order to get an even mixture. The mixture will look far too dry at first; it will become more moist as it sits. Allow it to rest a half-hour, until absorbed moisture has made the besan batter-like rather than powdery.
To make the yogurt sauce:
- If you have used the food processor earlier, clean the work bowl and lid now, replace on the base, and carefully install the chopping blade.
- If you have radish greens: I cook the radish greens briefly because I have a wonky immune system, but if you don't need to take such care you can skip doing so and simply place them in the food processor or blender. To cook the radish greens, begin by filling a small bowl with cold water. Set a small pan that has a lid on the stove and add the radish greens to it. Cover with the lid and turn the heat to medium. Time one minute. After one minute, uncover the greens and stir, then cover and cook for an additional thirty seconds. Immediately switch off the heat, uncover, turn the greens into the cold water, and stir until cold, replenishing the water if necessary to keep it cold. When the greens are cold, squeeze them dry and place them in the food processor or blender.
- Peel the roasted garlic. Add it to the blender or food processor, along with the yogurt, parsley, tahini, lemon juice, and salt. Run the appliance until the mixture is uniform. Set aside in the refrigerator. (This sauce can be prepared in advance.)
To fry:
- Line two baking sheets with rims with cooling racks or paper toweling. Place one by the stove and one in the oven to keep the fritters warm as they're finished. Preheat the oven to 200F (95C).
- After the batter has rested a half-hour, check to see that you can form a cohesive ball of the batter with a spoon or cookie scoop. There will still appear to be more vegetables than batter; that's how it should be, as the batter will expand during cooking because of the baking powder. If it's really dry, not holding together at all, sprinkle a small amount of the reserved expressed vegetable liquid over the mixture and mix again.
- Place oil for deep-frying - 5 cm or two inches - in a large, deep saucepan. Heat the oil to 325F (163C). With the cookie scoop, disher, or a pair of spoons, form 3.5 cm/1 T balls of the fritter batter and gently drop into the hot oil. Fry in batches, turning occasionally with a slotted spoon, spider, or skimmer, for four or five minutes, until light golden brown. The fritters will darken noticeably after being removed from the oil, so take them out when they are lighter than the finished color you’d prefer. Place them on the baking sheet and transfer to the oven as practicable to keep warm. If necessary, bring the oil back up to 325F (163C) before the next batch.
- Serve the fritters immediately with the dipping sauce.
Notes
Yield: 10 cups fritters, 2 cups dipping sauce.
Nutrition
Calories: 291kcal | Carbohydrates: 42g | Protein: 14g | Fat: 8g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 5mg | Sodium: 1389mg | Potassium: 811mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 7879IU | Vitamin C: 27mg | Calcium: 213mg | Iron: 4mg
Sharon
What a creative use of radishes and their greens!