Smoky Sweetcorn and Tofu Fritters | Vegan

There is so much you can do with the bountiful sweet corn in the summer. Corn cakes, corn chowder, corn bread or polenta made with fresh corn. They are equally delicious. You can also have corn on the cob, served boiled or grilled. The possibilities are endless. When I see this dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan version of a smokey sweetcorn and tofu fritters recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi, I’m all in. Curious to find out what holds everything together without the usual all-purpose flour and eggs. Obviously, it is the tofu, together with rice flour, the gluten-free alternative to wheat flour.

Never in doubt Ottolenghi’s recipes will bring plenty of flavor. In this case, it comes from the smoked paprika, the kaffir lime leaves and the green chili for its smoky, citrusy and spicy flavor. Each bite of these fritters brings easy and well-rounded flavors.

For the textural element, that comes from the crunchiness of the barely-cooked green beans and the crispy crust from pan frying. The fritters are held together well. They are stiff enough you can hold them in your fingers. However, the texture is on the soft side, more like that of an omelet.

Mise en place

It might looks like there are a lot of ingredients on the list. I used fresh corn, shaved from the cob, since they are so good and so widely available. Frozen corn will work in this recipe too. Most of the ingredients, except the green beans and the lime, go into the food processor. That’s simple enough; there are very few steps.

To get the best out of these smokey sweetcorn and tofu fritters, you need to cut the green beans really thin. That can get cumbersome. I don’t know whether the food processor would help. It might, at least it’d be a time saver. These fritters are best served when they are straight from the frying pan. Enjoy the summer and the vegan fritters!

Print Recipe

Smoky Sweetcorn and Tofu Fritters

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 350g silken tofu, broken up into 3/4 inch (2cm) pieces
• 200g frozen sweetcorn, de-frosted, or freshly shaved corn from the cob
• ½ tsp chipotle chilli flakes
• ½ tsp sweet smoked paprika
• ¼ tsp ground turmeric
• 5 fresh kaffir lime leaves, or grated lime zest, woody stems discarded and blitzed in a spice grinder to 1 tsp powder, or just finely chopped
• 1 tsp maple syrup
• 4 tbsp rice flour (not the glutinous type you’d use to make dumplings)
• 10g coriander leaves, roughly chopped
• 1 green chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped (15g)
• 4 spring onions, finely sliced (30g)
• 70g French beans, trimmed and finely sliced into small rounds, about 1/10 inch (2mm) thick
• 60ml sunflower oil
• 4 lime wedges, to serve
• Salt

Instructions

1

Place all the ingredients, except for the beans, oil and lime wedges, in a food processor with ¾ teaspoon salt. Blitz roughly so that most (but not all) of the sweetcorn is broken up. Stir in the sliced beans.

2

Add 2 tablespoons of oil to a large frying pan and place on a medium-high heat. Once hot, add 4 tablespoons of the mixture to make 4 fritters; do this carefully as the oil will spit. Flatten the mixture down so that each fritter is about 2 1/2 inches (6 or 7 centimeters) wide and 3/4 inch (1½ centimeters) thick and then fry for 1-2 minutes until golden-brown on the bottom (this is important: they need to crisp up completely on the bottom for them not to break when you turn them over; add a little extra rice flour if this still happens).

3

Use a spatula to carefully turn the fritters over and fry for another 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a kitchen paper-lined plate, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and keep somewhere warm whilst you continue with the remaining mix in the same way, topping up the oil with an extra tablespoon for each batch. Serve warm with and the lime wedges alongside.

Notes

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