Easy cheesy pea fritters
If you’re missing the ‘easy cheesy’ in your life, these fritters are here to sort you! Packed with sweet peas, fresh mint, and two kinds of cheese, they’re the ultimate light spring dish. And let’s take a moment to appreciate the humble frozen pea – the unsung hero of the freezer aisle. Picked at their peak and frozen in a flash, they bring that vibrant pop of green yumness to any dish; listen to us gush! We should be selling the things. Did you know we have Clarence Birdseye, an American inventor and entrepreneur who’s often credited as the father of the frozen food industry, to thank for them? In the 1920s, Birdseye observed the Inuit people in Canada using the cold Arctic temperatures to preserve their fish and meat. Inspired, he developed a method of flash-freezing. Peas were among the first vegetables Birdseye experimented with, discovering that freezing preserved their bright colour, sweetness, and nutrients. By 1930, Birdseye's frozen foods, including peas, were available in American stores, quickly becoming a household staple and the rest is you-know-what.
Frozen peas are considered a little boring these days, but here, they really shine, pairing perfectly with the tangy yoghurt, zesty lemon, and creamy goat cheese goodness.
Quick to make, you can serve these fritters for lunch, brunch, or as a light dinner; any leftovers even taste great the next day. Shallow-fried until golden and crispy, just add a squeeze of lemon at the end with a generous smatter of extra parmesan, and watch them disappear in no time.
PS. A note from the Department of Food Safety; you should always boil peas in boiling water for 2 minutes before using them in a recipe, no matter what that recipe tells you to do. Don’t just heave them into the fritter mixture thawed, and imagine they’ll cook enough to kill any bugs. They won’t. You can potentially get sick. You heard it here.
MAKES ABOUT 22
520g (4 cups) frozen baby peas
150g (1 cup) plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp each salt and pepper
2 large eggs, beaten well
95g (⅓ cup) Greek yoghurt
1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest
small handful mint leaves, chopped
150g soft goat cheese, crumbled
110g (1 firmly packed cup) finely grated parmesan or cheddar, plus extra, to serve
canola or avocado oil, for cooking
lemon cheeks, to serve
Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil for the peas, then cook for 2 minutes. Drain well, run under water to cool, then drain well again.
Meanwhile, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper in a large bowl and whisk well to combine. Add the egg, yoghurt and lemon zest, then stir using a large metal spoon to combine well; the mixture will be quite stiff. Add the mint, cheeses and peas, then work into the batter mixture using the back of the metal spoon.
Heat enough oil to shallow fry in a large, non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Cooking in batches, drop heaped dessert spoonfuls of the mixture into the pan, spreading them a little to form fritters 7-8cm across. Cook for 3 minutes on each side, or until deep golden. Drain on kitchen paper, then serve with lemon wedges for squeezing over and extra parmesan for sprinkling, if you like.
