Carrot Patties: Easy Breaded Recipe with Semolina
Main Dishes·Vegetables and Mushrooms

Carrot Patties: Easy Breaded Recipe with Semolina

Simple homemade carrot patties are a dish you can make quickly even when the fridge is nearly empty. Not only are carrot patties easy to cook with a bare minimum of extras, they can also be made fully vegetarian, without eggs, butter or milk. Coarse flour or plain semolina works as the binder, and you can adjust the flavor with spices or a little fresh hot pepper.

Strictly speaking, carrot patties are croquettes: rounded shapes of minced meat or vegetables, rolled in breading and deep-fried. Falafel, famous all over the world, is a good example. A cutlet proper, on the other hand, is a piece of meat on a rib bone. Still, here we mostly use the word for anything made from mince, and call the piece of meat a “natural” cutlet. There are plenty of examples around the world of mince dishes going by different names: kufta, kofte, kebab and so on.

The stereotype that a cutlet is always made of meat is simply wrong. Meatless patties are very common, and the most popular ones are made from vegetables, such as cabbage or potato patties. Broadly speaking, deruny and draniki, the potato pancakes, are close relatives of vegetable patties and are made on the same principles. Meat-free patties are also often based on cottage cheese, well-cooked grains or legumes.

Carrots are used very widely in cooking. We eat the orange root, and its shade is often simply called carrot orange. In the past, though, people ate the fragrant leaves and seeds. By the way, the orange carrot was bred from the wild one by selection. Young roots go into salads, juices, soups and stocks. A carrot added to soup improves the color of the broth and gives it a barely noticeable sweetness.

They are small patties of boiled and mashed carrots mixed with spices and binding ingredients, fried with or without breading.

Around the world, carrot patties are often used to make vegetarian burgers. There are many kinds of veggie burgers where the meat patty is replaced with a carrot one. Since carrot mince doesn't hold together well and falls apart during cooking, eggs, hard cheese, flour or starch are added to it. The mixture is shaped into round or oblong patties, dipped in egg if that suits you, coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried or simply pan-fried in oil.

Carrot patties

More with carrots

Braised Onions with CarrotsBraised onions and carrots with tomato paste: a simple, cheap vegetable side ready in under an hour. Serve with meat, fish or mashed potatoes, or as a sauce.Pan-Fried Vegetables: Carrots, Peppers and Young EggplantPan-fried vegetables in one skillet: carrots, parsnip, bell and hot peppers, celery and young eggplant, fried in stages for a quick side dish for meat or fish.Braised Beef with Onions and Carrots: Chuck with VegetablesBraised beef with whole small onions and chunky carrots: beef chuck slowly simmered in a pan until fork-tender. A simple home-style recipe with photos.Pumpkin Caviar: a Fragrant Appetizer with Carrots and GarlicHomemade pumpkin caviar: pumpkin stewed with fried onion, carrot, garlic and spices, then pureed and balanced with vinegar. A simple vegan cold appetizer.Carrot SoupThick, fragrant carrot soup puree with ginger and lemon zest, made without oil. Step-by-step recipe with photos, plus a note on Moro carrot soup.

Ingredients

6 patties

  • Carrots 600 g
  • Eggs 2
  • Butter 2 tbsp
  • Vegetable oil 2 tbsp
  • Milk 0.5 cup
  • Breadcrumbs 0.5 cup
  • Semolina 1-1.5 tbsp
  • Salt, sugar to taste
  • Sour cream or soured milk, black pepper, tomato sauce or adjika for the sauce

Step-by-step recipe

  1. Carrot patties are best made from young carrots. They don't yet have the grassy taste of the tops or the “woodiness” many people complain about. Young carrots are very juicy, slightly sweet and a wonderful bright orange. Wash and peel the carrots: simply scrape them with a vegetable knife, removing any damage and dark spots. If there is a green patch at the top end, it's better to cut it off.

    Young carrots.
  2. To cook the carrots you'll need a pot or a pan with a lid. If the carrots aren't cooked first, the patties will have hard bits in them. Cut the peeled carrots a little larger than you would for vinaigrette salad and put them in the pot. Add 0.5 tsp of sugar, a pinch of salt and 1 tbsp of butter. Pour in the milk; it's best to bring it to a boil first to make sure it's fresh.

    Cooking the carrots until tender.
  3. Stew the carrots in the milk until they are soft and the milk is almost completely absorbed. Stir often so the carrots don't burn. Cook covered over low heat. Finely chopped carrots are usually done in 25-30 mins.

    Cooked carrots for the patty mixture.
  4. Add 1 tbsp of semolina, sprinkling it over the carrots, and stir. Keep heating over low heat, stirring constantly. After 5 mins, check how thick the mixture is and add a little more semolina if needed. Mash the carrots and semolina with a fork to make the mixture smoother, with no obvious large pieces. Separate the egg yolks from the whites into two bowls.

    Carrots with semolina.
  6. Take the carrots off the heat, transfer them to a deep bowl and let cool. They should be cool enough that the egg yolks won't curdle. Add the yolks to the carrot mixture and work it until smooth. The mixture for the patties is ready. You can chill it further or start shaping right away. By the way, if the mixture is too soft, the patties may fall apart while frying. You can add a little breadcrumbs, literally 1 tbsp.

    Egg yolks in the carrot mixture.
  7. With wet hands, shape six patties of any shape you like: round, oblong or ball-shaped. Beat the egg whites with a fork and dip the patties in them one at a time. Then roll them in breadcrumbs, preferably not store-bought ones but grated stale bread, sifted.

    Breaded patties.
  8. Heat 1 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a frying pan. When the fat is very hot, add the carrot patties. Fry on both sides until golden brown. If the patties aren't very thick, you can fry them through over medium heat without a lid. Thicker ones are better kept covered over low heat for another 8-10 mins.
    Frying the patties.
  9. Meanwhile, you can make the sauce. A very tasty sauce comes from mixing 2-3 tbsp of low-fat sour cream, yogurt or soured milk with 1-2 tsp of tomato sauce or adjika. Season with black pepper if you like. Put a few sprigs of parsley and basil on the plate. Pour the sauce into a small cup or sauce boat and set it on the plate. Add the finished carrot patties and serve right away.

    Carrot patties
  10. If you want fully vegetarian patties, you can replace the milk with water, leave out the butter and make the sauce without dairy, to your taste. If you're making a diet dish, the carrot patties can be baked in the oven on a baking sheet. Young potatoes make an exceptionally good side dish.
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Recipe facts
Yield:6 patties
Calories:115 kcal per 100 g
Prep:45 mins
Cooking:15 mins
Ready in:1 h
Category:Main Dishes › Vegetables and Mushrooms
Cuisine:European
Rating:
4.8 (10)
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