Cheese & Spring Onion Rice Flour Fritters

Phoebe Thorburn -

Savoury cheesy fritters made with rice flour?! Everyone needs to know about these.

If you're wondering what they taste like – think crispy, chewy, slightly creamy hashbrown–adjacent mouthfuls. They could be part of a brunch spread or reheated as a delicious snack. Either way, they're a really good idea, come together almost instantly and taste very comforting. You might even already have the ingredients!

This recipe was veganised from the Cheddar and Rice Flour Fritters recipe in Weekly Provisions: How to Eat Seasonally and Love What's Left Over, by Kim Duke. Very grateful to learn of this concept, thank you Kim!

INGREDIENTS

  • 100g rice flour (not brown rice flour)
  • 300ml hot water, straight from a boiled kettle
  • salt & pepper, to season
  • large handful sliced spring onions
  • 100g grated dairy-free cheese (sharp tasting parmesan or cheddar works best)
  • light-flavoured vegetable oil, for frying

To Serve: avocado, kimchi

METHOD

  1. Place the rice flour in a medium bowl. Add the hot water and whisk immediately into a mostly smooth batter. Let it sit for 5 minutes to thicken slightly. Depending on the brand of rice flour the consistency will vary from batch to batch (that's ok).
  2. Add a generous pinch of salt & pepper, along with the spring onions and cheese. Stir to thoroughly combine.
  3. Either refrigerate the batter until ready to cook (up to 24 hours is fine) or cook up immediately (these also reheat wonderfully).
  4. To cook, heat a generous glug of light-flavoured vegetable oil in a non-stick pan (somewhat less than shallow-frying). Once hot, add about 1 tbsp-fulls of mixture – giving them plenty of room as they may spread. Cook for about 5+ minutes on each side over medium heat, or until the edges are starting to golden and the fritters easily come away from the pan. If they're sticking slightly, they just require longer on that side. Flip and cook until golden brown on the other side. Best not to undercook these, so be patient. Remove to a clean tea-towel lined plate and repeat to use up all the batter. You may wish to have two pans on the go to make quicker work of this. You can also make a giant fritter to simplify the cooking process – just note the texture won't be as consistent this way (aka there'll be more crunch, less cheesy middle).
  5. Serve the fritters warm, either on their own or with some mashed avocado or kimchi on top. Reheat the leftovers in the air-fryer for a few minutes until warm.