Southwest Zucchini Patties

It's time again for Secret Recipe Club reveal!  My secret blog assignment this month is pizza rossa, a lovely blog written by Rachael.  Rachel has lived in Switzerland since 2001, and she and her husband have been vegetarians for many years.  She loves sharing delicious and healthy recipes, along with some decadent sweet treats, and encouraging people to try something new.

Looking through Rachael's blog, I found several recipes I really want to try. Tuscan Style Roasted Vegetables, Spinach & Zucchini Pie, and Potato and Spinach Waffles are just a few that caught my eye.

But I eventually decided on these zucchini patties.  They just sounded so good. (Mine got a little extra browned, so the picture does not do it justice, but trust me, these are good.)

Southwest Zucchini Patties
adapted from pizza rossa

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. zucchini, 1 medium or 2-3 small
• 1 cup frozen corn, thawed
• 1 can (15 oz) can kidney beans
• 2 green onions, minced
• 2 T chopped cilantro
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• about 1 cup dry breadcrumbs
• Oil for frying

Directions:

1. Grate the zucchini on a box grater and spread over a couple of sheets of paper towels; top with more paper towels and put a heavy cutting board on top. 
2. Rinse and drain the corn and kidney beans in separate strainers.
3. Lightly beat the eggs in a mixing bowl.  Add kidney beans and roughly mash with the back of a fork or a potato masher. Mix in corn, zucchini, minced onions, and cilantro.  Add cumin, cayenne, salt & pepper.
4. Stir in enough breadcrumbs so the mixture becomes quite stiff.  Use damp hands to shape the mixture into patties.
5. Heat about two tablespoons of oil in a skillet and cook the patties until well browned on both sides, 4 – 5 minutes per side.

Makes about a dozen large patties or 20 small ones

These smelled so good as soon as I mixed the ingredients together.  And then, when they were cooking - even better.  I added the cilantro and cut the cayenne down because my husband does not like things too spicy.  Other than that, I pretty much stuck with Rachael's recipe - except I just wrote 'bread crumbs' when I copied the recipe instead of dry bread crumbs, so I ended up using more bread crumbs than the recipe called for, and the mixture never did get very stiff.  So next time I'll be sure to make sure my bread crumbs are nice and dry and see if that makes any difference.  It still formed nice enough patties that cooked up really well.  I cooked them for 5 minutes on the first side without disturbing them, just to be sure they held together, which is why mine ended up a bit over-browned. 

Rachael served hers with some gorgeous pico de gallo, which would have been great, but we just topped them with salsa and sour cream  So good!  I wasn't sure how my husband would respond to having these for dinner and no meat (Gasp!), so I made some Spicy Avocado Chicken too, as an alternative option.  He ate some of both, and then went back for two more of these patties.  I'd say that's a win.

The leftovers heat up really nicely, and I have eaten a few of them cold too.  They're pretty much good however you eat them, and I'll definitely be making these again.

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