Croquettes are always popular and you can hide inside all kinds of vegetables that children and many grown-ups are not very fond of. The children like this kind of finger food and will gobble them down, no questions asked. They are also fantastic as a snack, for a party or for lunch with French fries and a salad. Try them out, you will love them.
Ingredients: 1 eggplant 2 zucchini 1 – 2 carrots 1 medium onion ½ leek 2 – 3 spring onions 1 – 2 potatoes 1 green pepper 1 red pepper 1 bunch parsley chopped ½ bunch spearmint chopped 250 – 300 gr. feta cheese 1 egg Salt, pepper 4 – 5 tablespoonfuls self raising flour All purpose flour for frying. Oil for frying
Directions:
Grate all the vegetables, chop finely the parsley and the spearmint and place everything in a strainer. Sprinkle some salt and let them drain. Press them with the back of a spoon now and then to remove as much water as possible.
You can use any vegetables you like apart from the ones mentioned above – broccoli, cauliflower, parsnips, cabbage etc. Feel free to experiment and add vegetables that you feel the children should eat. You can also increase the vegetables if you have more people to feed.
When the vegetables are ready, place them in a bowl. Add the crumbled feta cheese, the egg, 3 or 4 tablespoonfuls of self raising flour, salt and pepper and mix well. The mixture must hold together and not be runny. However, you shouldn’t put too much flour. The mixture will be sticky, that’s why you use a spoon to make the croquettes. Taste and adjust the seasonings.
Put some all purpose flour on a plate. Take spoonfuls of the mixture and drop them in the flour. You can shape them into oblong croquettes with your hands. They should be rather small and not very thick, so they can cook inside. In the meantime, you put some oil in a pan (not too much) and you heat it up. You place the croquettes in the hot oil. Lower the heat, to about 4 so that the croquettes cook without burning. When they brown on the one side you turn them over. When they are ready, take them out of the pan and place them on a plate covered with absorbing paper. Place the second batch of croquettes in the pan, and repeat the procedure until you have used all the mixture.
If there is too much burned flour at the bottom of the pan, pour out the contents and wipe it with absorbent paper. Add fresh oil and continue frying.
If on the other hand you don’t want to fry them, place them on a lightly oiled pan and bake them in the oven at 180oC, turning them once so they are browned all over.
You can serve them as a side dish, as a snack or as a light lunch with a Greek or a green salad.