Leek Fritters

This recipe comes from a wonderful recipe book I bought recently - Yotam Ottolenghi's 'Plenty'. I love this book! The writer is a chef whose restaurants are famous for their fresh and original salads and vegetable dishes. Although the restaurants are not vegetarian, this recipe collection IS, which trills me so. The Guardian commissioned him to write a column on vegetarian cooking on the basis of his knowledge of fresh produce and how to treat it which he attributes to his family's recipes and the farmers markets in Israel where he grew up. The recipes from that column plus others make up this appetisingly photographed cook book. Everything I've made from it so far has been delicious and very well-received. These leek fritters are so much better than their name sounds and were all gobbled up straight away by just three of us!

Leek Fritters

Serve 4

450g leeks (about 2 or 3 leeks) trimmed weight
5 shallots, finely chopped
150 ml olive oil
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and sliced
25g parsley (leaves and fine stalks), finely chopped
3/4 t ground coriander
1 t ground cumin
1/4 t ground turmeric
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1 t sugar (I used raw caster sugar)
1/2 t salt
1 free-range egg white
120g self-raising flour
1 T (yes, T) baking powder
1 whole free-range egg
150ml milk
55g unsalted butter, melted


Sauce
100g Greek yoghurt
100g sour cream
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 T lemon juice
3 T olive oil
1/2 t salt
20g parsley leaves, chopped
30g coriander leaves, chopped



Start by making the sauce.Whizz all the ingredients together in a food processor until a uniform green. Set aside for later.

The boys were pretty happy to eat the bread covered in the sauce too - it makes a delish, if garlicky dip.

Cut the leeks into 2cm thick slices; rinse and drain dry. Saute the leeks and shallots in a pan with half the oil on a medium heat for about 15 minutes, or until soft.


Transfer to a large bowl and add the chilli, parsley, spices, sugar and salt. Allow to cool down.

Whisk the egg white to soft peaks and fold it into the vegetables. In another bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, whole egg, milk and butter to form a batter. Gently mix it into the egg white and vegetable mixture.


Put 2 T of the remaining oil into a large frying pan and place over medium heat. Spoon about half of the vegetable mixture into the pan to make four large fritters. (I actually ended up making 12, not 8 fritters with this recipe as that seemed like the fritter size I was used to). Fry them 2-3 minutes on each side, or until golden and crisp. Remove to kitchen paper and keep warm. Continue making the fritters, adding more oil as needed. Serve warm, with the sauce on the side or drizzled over.