Known as Croquettes de Courgettes, these French style Zucchini Fritters are a perfect Summer treat and delicious way to sneak more veggies into your day. They are made with a heaping amount of zucchini, onion, garlic and nutty Gruyère cheese – which makes these fritters perfectly tender inside and crispy outside. They’re fun and easy to make, and always disappear fast.
These French Style Zucchini Fritters are a great way to use up the abundance of zucchini available in late summer. They’re very popular across France, specifically in the South Eastern part of France. This region maintains strong Mediterranean influences and features many fried doughs, fritters and savory pancakes – all usually fried in extra virgin olive oil.
The particularity of these zucchini fritters is that they’re made with Gruyère, a hard mountain cheese, which lends a delicious flavor and texture.
This recipe requires 2lbs of zucchini (900g), which equals about 2 large zucchini or 3 medium size ones. These fritters are fairly easy and quick to make, especially if you have a food processor for grating the zucchini.
My tip for crispy zucchini fritters
A key to ensure the fritters will turn crispy every time is to squeeze out as much liquid as possible from the grated zucchini. Especially when in-season and perfectly ripe, zucchini tend to retain a lot of water which can make the fritters soggy if not thoroughly squeezed out.
To do so, here are 2 simple techniques:
- Simply grab handfuls of the grated zucchini (with two hands), place your hands above the sink and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
- You can also place all the grated zucchini in a bowl lined with cheesecloth. Then grab the cheesecloth and squeeze as much liquid as you can into the bowl.
How to serve these French-style Zucchini fritters
One of the reasons why I love these fritters so much is because they are so versatile. You can enjoy them as a snack, or on their own – with just a simple pinch of salt. You can enjoy them as an appetizer or as a side dish.
I personally love to serve them with a classic Stove-top Ratatouille, a Tomato Salad or sometimes with a bowl of Fresh Tomato Velouté Soup.
You can also pair them with a dipping sauce for extra flavor: it can be a simple sour cream, crème fraiche or a Tartare sauce.
How to store these French-style Zucchini fritters
After making (and enjoying) these fritters – if you have any leftovers – you can store them in the refrigerator or in the freezer.
- In the refrigerator: store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat the fritters in a frying pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until crisp on the edges. I don’t recommend reheating them in a microwave as they will lose their crisp.
- In the freezer: store them in a (freezer-friendly) airtight container and place them in the freezer for up to 3 months. To reheat, let them thaw in the fridge before heating them again in a pan.
Common Questions
Can I substitute the Gruyère for another cheese?
Yes. Although I do prefer them made with Gruyère, these fritters can be made with another hard cheese such as grated cheddar or mozzarella.
Can I use yellow squash instead of green zucchini?
Yes, absolutely. You can use yellow squash in the same quantity (1:1). Make sure to also wring out as much moisture as possible.
Why do the fritters falls apart when cooking?
This is likely because there is too much moisture in your batter or the pan isn’t hot enough. Make sure you wring out as much moisture as possible from the grated zucchini (see instructions above).
My cooking tips:
- It is very important the frying pan and the oil are well heated before you start adding the dollops of zucchini batter. This is essential to create crisp, browned fritters that release from the pan easily. Be sure to heat the pan at least 5 minutes before you start to cook.
- For making these French Zucchini Fritters, I strongly recommend using Gruyère. This hard, Swiss-made cheese is subtly salty with delicious nutty notes. It melts very well and creates great crisp edges too. In France, Gruyère is affordable and widely available. It often comes pre-grated, sold in individual pouches. In the US/Canada, Gruyère is a bit costlier than your average block of cheese, but well worth it to use in this recipe. As a more affordable option, you can opt for white or orange cheddar or grated mozzarella.
- The zucchini batter is loose. For shaping the fritters, drop heaping tablespoons of the batter into the sizzling pan and use a spatula to gently flatten them into patties. They don’t need to be perfectly round or even – little crannies create crisper edges! I don’t recommend making them any bigger or they won’t cook properly inside and will be harder to shape.
More late-Summer recipes to enjoy:
- Classic French stove-top Ratatouille
- Chilled Zucchini Mint Soup
- Crustless Quiche with Summer Vegetables
- Classic Vegetable Tian from Provence
- Roasted Red Pepper Dip from Provence
- Classic French Tomato Mustard Tart
- Swiss Chard Pancakes (Farçous)
- Cod Provençal with Tomatoes, Capers & Olives
21 comments
Would you please include your suggestion/s for the dip/s to accompany fritters?
Hello, Raquel. I have included in the blog post my suggestions for dips for these fritters. It’s under the “How to Serve these” section. But there is a lot of writing and photos, so it’s easy to get lost in it all. My simple suggestions for dipping are a simple sour cream, crème fraiche or a Tartare sauce. My husband also enjoys these with some dill added in the sour cream, but I tend to leave my sour cream as is.
Hope this helps!
I love the easy look of your recipes 😋
Much appreciated, Bernadette! I try my best to make French cooking accessible to everyone!
I just made these. I think a old cheddar cheese would work well as an alternative to Gruyere, though that is what I had on hand and they are really scrumptious. I used one large 2lb zucchini from my garden, a food processor to grate it and a cheese cloth to squeeze the copious water out. I heated my cast iron pan for five minutes, but I found they needed to cook longer than the three minutes per side perhaps because my “rounded” tablespoon was more like three and my stove not being perfectly level, the browning took six minutes in the oil and another two or three on the side of the pan where there was little or no oil. It’s a lot of work to make these, but I will make them again, maybe even looking like the picture!
Thank you so much, Patricia! So glad they turned out for you, and so glad you had the presence of mind to cook them a little longer to get the right color/cook on them. I agree that a bigger scoop will take more time to cook, and an unlevel pan where to oil leans to one side doesn’t make things easier, but sounds like you improvised perfectly!
They definitely take some work, but agree they’re well worth the effort!
A waste of good ingredients. I’ll continue using zucchini in sweet loaf only. Even the sour creme and aioli sauces tasted better than the fritter.
Sorry to hear that, Theresa. These are very popular here, but not everything is for everyone. Zucchini loaves are a great use of zucchini as well!
Geez, THERESA, what do you expect? Zucchini is naturally bland – almost tasteless. So yes, a savory dish with zucchini is not going to have much taste – you’re only going to taste what you add to the zucchini. Same as in a sweet loaf – you taste the sugar, not the zucchini. IMO this is a great recipe – and the accompanying photos are spectacular.
I added a second egg after seeing that the first batch didn’t hold together well. That did wonders.
Great thinking, John! A lot of variables can play a part in these fritters, but I tested the recipe enough times that mine was what worked best for me. Zucchini elsewhere could be more or less wet, eggs smaller/larger, but you did perfectly to think on your toes. I may go back and add a caveat about adding an egg if needed. Thanks again!
I was wondering what to do with the zucchini in the fridge – and this recipe was great. I squeezed the zucchini in cheesecloth, and then salted the zucchini, and got all the other ingredients ready, and did a second squeeze – a lot more liquid came out the second time. I added a mix of cheeses on hand. Very tasty.
I wonder if you have any tips on keeping the fritters crispy while the whole batch gets fried. I put the finished ones on paper towels in a baking dish in the oven at 275 degrees F, but they still seemed a bit soggy. Served with a mix of yogurt, lemon, a bit of mayonnaise, chives and parsley.
Thank you so much, Cynthia! A second squeeze sounds like an excellent idea… I think I might include that in my directions, as it just makes sense. To answer your question about keeping them crispy, I too have been on the hunt as it seems a difficult task. The best results I’ve had was keeping them directly on the steel grate in the oven at 250-275F, so hot air can circulate all around them. They didn’t stay crisp, but were less “soggy” than when placed on a baking dish. And to be honest, whether at home or out, I don’t think I’ve ever been served these fritters “crisp”… It just might not be entirely possible.
My family love these, granddaughters wolf them down. I serve with sour cream/greek yogurt and dill. This is a great end of growing season meal.
Thank you so much, April. Your family has wonderful taste! Not many better ways to use up all that zucchini that’s around, I’m so glad you enjoy it!
These were a hit! Thank you for the recipe. Note to anyone that thinks they can do these in a mini muffin tin to get uniform size, all done at once. No. They don’t work. I wanted to make a lot for a party. Thought I could make them like egg cups. I have a non stick (kind of) pan. They stuck to the pan, didn’t cook in the middle, took longer and eventually had to scoop them out and brown them in the pan. Thankfully, they survived and were a hit at the party. I served with an herbed creme fraiche.
I added about 1/4 t of lemon zest and a some lemon juice. The lemon brightened up the flavor. I also used 2 eggs like another person commented and the consistence was perfect.
Excellent quick thinking, Lynda! Some recipes just don’t translate well to other cooking vessles/mediums.. But thankfully you did some quick thinking and still nailed it. I’m “guilty” of doing this myself sometimes – and sometimes it works, and others I wish I just went with the instructions. But that’s part of learning in the kitchen, and even if the results aren’t perfect, makes you a better chef in the end.
So glad they were enjoyed, I wish I had a few to dig into right now 🙂
Great recipe, thanks. These are basically like Turkish mucver, only with gruyere instead of the Turkish white cheese, and mucver are full of fresh herbs. I added a load of basil to mine and they were great.
The only thing I’d add is sprinkling a teaspoon or so of salt over the grated courgettes and leaving them to stand for half an hour before squeezing them makes it possible (and much easier) to squeeze out a lot of the liquid.
They cook great in an air fryer, and there’s no chance of them falling apart.
So glad you enjoyed them, Bruce! I’m sure these types of fritters can be found in several parts of Europe (and/or Middle-East) with their own little twists, so it’s fun to learn about the Mucver.
Also great tips and advice for other readers (and myself), they’ll definitely be useful. So glad you enjoyed them 🙂
These were delicious! When we served them as “leftovers”, we served them as zucchini fritter “burgers” with tartar sauce, lettuce, sprouts and tomatoes on brioche rolls. I believe using Gruyère is key and wouldn’t recommend substituting, Fabulous! Thanks!
Thank you so very much, Kathleen. Absolutely LOVE the leftover idea. That’s brilliant. As someone who really tried to shy away from eating too much meat – especially red meat – this idea is so up my alley!