The perfect quick savoury snack. This tasty recipe for vegan sweetcorn fritters is a life saver when we are going hungry on a busy day. Using a simple batter and a can of sweetcorn, they come together in no time at all.
A quick hunger fix
There are times where we crave something tasty and savoury, but we don’t feel like chopping a lot of veg to satisfy our hunger. When we have just spend hours writing about food, or driving across half a country, we sometimes just don’t have the patience to wait for a meal to cook. And sometimes we have even run out of fresh vegetables. What we need is a quick and easy yummy fix. In such an emergency, these vegan sweetcorn fritters are our go-to meal.
The sweetcorn fritters are super simple to make and come together in no time at all. They are also super tasty: fried in the pan, full of flavour and the juicy crispness of the sweetcorn.
Canned Goods
Of course, we like fresh vegetables. We love them! They are about the only food we spend money on when we are travelling. Ideally we source locally and seasonally, from small producers and shops. Occasionally, we just can’t find what we are looking for and delay our veg shopping, or we decide to stay a day longer off the grid and simply run out of fresh vegetables. Then, it’s good to have a backup. Canned food!
We’ve always taken canned food with us on our trips. Usually a lot of chickpeas (we LOVE hummus), beans, chopped tomatoes (in the winter, these are often more nutritious and tasty than greenhouse tomatoes from abroad). These days also a few cans of fruit - pineapples and peaches. And always, sweetcorn. Sweetcorn is not only great as sweetcorn fritters, but are nice alongside beans in a pot of chili. We also love them on our pizzas. I admit, I could even eat sweetcorn straight out of the can. A whole can. Yum. But let's get back to our vegan sweetcorn fritters…
Making the sweetcorn fritters
We like our vegan sweetcorn fritters most with some cumin and paprika. A classic duo of flavour. Once we used to put herbs in the sweetcorn fritters, but now we stick to the spicy version.
We use some ground flaxseed to achieve the texture we want, but you could try omitting that to make the recipe even simpler.
When it comes to the can of sweetcorn itself, there’s no need to drain away all that flavourful water from the can. Use it directly to make the batter! Just chuck it all in with the sweetcorn. Add flaxseed, cumin, paprika, some garlic powder and salt (unless the sweetcorn is already salted - check on the can). Then, stir in enough flour to create a thick batter. Fry on high heat in some olive oil. Wait until crisp. Turn over once. E voila! Best enjoyed with sweet chili sauce or (some of you will resent me for this) ketchup.
Once we couldn’t be bothered to make several fritters in our smaller pan (it’s tiny), so we just poured the whole bowl full of batter into our griddle pan to make a giant sweetcorn fritter! How fun! And just as tasty.
Vegan sweetcorn fritters have a positive feel of finger fast food to them, and they are indeed quickly done. They are a perfect snack that keeps us fuelled when we crave something fried and savoury, but don’t want to spend a long time cooking. We’ll always keep our larder well stocked, or stacked, with sweetcorn. 🙂
Vegan Sweetcorn Fritters
Ingredients
- 1 340g can sweetcorn
- 100 ml liquid from can or water
- 1 tsp ground flaxseed
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp salt (optional - see instructions)
- 1/3 cup (50 g) plain flour
- Vegetable or olive oil for frying
Instructions
Fritter mixture
- Check the ingredients on your can of sweetcorn. If it already contains salt, you don't need to add any extra.
- Simply combine all ingredients in a bowl to form a uniform mixture.
Frying fritters
- Heat up a bit of olive oil in a pan.
- Add some mixture into the pan and press it flat.
- Fry on both sides until crisp (~2x2 min) and repeat for the rest of the mixture.
Notes
Nutrition
Nom nom nom, still feeling the hunger pangs? Try our sweet fritters - we've got recipes for Apple Fritters and Acacia Flower Fritters too.
Or if you are looking for other quick meals check out our vegan recipes ready in 15 minutes or less!
Paul and Sophie
Rach says
Hi, I was just wondering how you would recommend making this with fresh corn? My dad and I are looking into using some from his allotment for fritters! Thanks in advance 🙂
Sophie and Paul says
Hey Rach,
I had an ear of corn so I just did a little test for you! Here's what I did: Cut the kernels off the cob. You'll want around 2 cobs/240g of kernels to replace one 340g can. Follow the other quantities as in the recipe and be sure to add the salt. I had to add a bit more flour (around 1 tbsp was enough) to get the batter thick enough. They took about the same time to cook - 2 minutes on each side. Be sure to use a non stick pan, and heat up the oil well before frying. My corn had been stored a while and so wasn't as sweet, so I'd try using your corn fresh if possible.
Hope that helps and wishing you a lovely weekend! Sophie
Rach says
hi thank you so much for this! Have made them now and theyre so good we are making them again!