Floury potatoes: 120g (pre-cooked)
Cauliflower: 20 g (Pre-cooked, with leaves and stems)
Carrots: 20 g (Pre-cooked)
Peas: 20 g (Pre-cooked green peas)
Broccoli: 20 g (pre-cooked with leaves and stems)
Breadcrumbs: 20% of the total mix
Eggs: 1-2
Salt
Black pepper
Cooking oil: For deep frying
Chef Karima Lopez shares her simple and tasty recipe for vegetarian croquettes, an ideal way for using up those cooked leftover vegetables in the fridge.
"There are no rules for this recipe, feel free to use all the leftover veg you have in your fridge, even adding in chickpeas or beans," says Lopez. But most importantly, she reminds us to use up what we have lying around and not let it go to waste.
Mix all the vegetables together in a bowl and gently crush with both hands, slowly bringing the mixture together until you get a rustic texture.
Top tip: Make sure the vegetables are warm in order to make it easier to form a homogenous paste.
Add breadcrumbs and an egg or two to the mix until you get a fairly solid consistent mixture that binds together, and season with salt and pepper.
When you have a good consistency, shape the mixture into croquettes.
Let the croquettes chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Remove croquettes from the fridge and roll individually in flour to prevent them from falling apart during cooking, as well as giving them a crispy texture when cooked.
Deep-fry the croquettes in cooking oil at 170 °C, until golden, and lay on absorbent paper to remove any excess oil.
Serve croquettes family-style, generously heaped on a sharing plate and drizzled with warmed rich demi-glace (see our recipe.)
Chef Karime Lopez from Gucci Osteria da Massimo Bottura in Florence, Italy, shares her tips on how to turn vegetable trimmings into delicious crunchy vegetarian croquettes topped with a rich vegetable demi-glace.
The recipe forms part of Why Waste? with chef Massimo Bottura, the exclusive Fine Dining Lovers series dedicated to making waste food delicious.
