Kolokithokeftedes! Whaaaat? Possibly the hardest Greek word to pronounce, but the easiest dish to make AND chow down on. Grated zucchini, yellow squash, shallots and fresh herbs, we got just one word (well sound) mmmmmmmmm!
In Greek, keftedes refers to these delicious little fried meatballs. In Cyprus we traditionally make them with a mixture of pork and beef, shredded potato and A LOT of halloumi. Haven't tried halloumi yet? You are seriously missing out, I'll have to do a post dedicated solely to it so watch out for that!
Anyways Kolokithokeftedes or Zucchini Keftedes are a vegetarian take on the original dish. Often served with tzantziki, feta or just some lemon they're truly delicious. In Cyprus, Greek classic dishes often have a middle eastern spin on them. The cuisine is heavily influenced by Lebanese, Turkish, Syrian and even Israeli cuisines--so basically it's just pretty dang awesome.
This recipe encompasses this as you can see in the fresh mint addition. When you bite into these you get a really nice crispy exterior and then a soft moist interior thats just so beautifully fresh and aromatic you truly can't go wrong. I just introduced Justin to these and when we were making them he took the lead since they're just so easy to do and come together very quickly.
"When you bite into these you get a really nice crispy exterior and then a soft moist interior thats just so beautifully fresh and aromatic you truly can't go wrong."
The important thing to do is to strain the water out from the zucchini and yellow squash; Adding some salt will definitely help out. Or you can grate them the night before and leave them in a strainer in the fridge overnight as well. What I like to do if I haven't thought that far ahead is evenly sprinkle the grated squash with salt and then press out the liquid gently, allowing it to sit and drain while I finish up the rest of the recipe.
Be careful not to over salt the mixture-- It is easy to do once the squash is seasoned and that could be a real shame because it's such a delicate recipe. I speak from experience as Justin and I did this when we were in the test kitchen. We ended up refrigerating the first batch, making an additional batch with no salt and combining the two! Then we ended up with extra, but, hey, we aren't complaining. This also allowed us to test out the recipe in the fridge!
I would recommend not making this more than one day in advance. If you chose to do so I would freeze the patties and then fry or bake them while they're still frozen and just allowing extra time for them to cook through. They're relatively thin so they don't take long to bake and freezing them worked out perfectly for us and didn't alter the taste at all!
Alright enough chit chat, here is the recipe below! Please like/comment and let us know what you think!
