Hopefully this is not news to you, but Thanksgiving is an American (and, to a lesser extent and on a different day, Canadian) holiday. The Dutch celebrated the arrival of Sinterklaas a few days ago, and before that, there was St. Martin’s day, which apparently involved children going door to door with homemade lanterns made out of root vegetables singing songs in exchange for candy. (Imagine if Dwight Schrute reimagined Halloween, and you have St. Martin’s Day). Aside from those two, which are mostly just for kids anyway, the Dutch don’t really celebrate any holidays between King’s Day in April and New Year’s Eve. Christmas will happen, but people are warning us that it will be a pretty low-key, churchy type affair.

Trenton is not a big fan of zucchini, but I really like it, so I find myself sneaking it into recipes in delicious ways just for the satisfaction of watching him enjoy a dish that contains a food that he hates. This is love. As a consolation for having to go to work the next day, Trenton and I enjoyed these yummy fritters with a side salad of rucola and sliced tomatoes on the Wednesday before we-don’t-celebrate-that-here Thursday.

1 zucchini, grated
1 can of chickpeas, mashed kind of
1 onion, sliced thinly
2 eggs
1/3 cup flour
1 TB milk
dash cumin
dash mint
dash oregano
salt to taste
oil for frying

The recipe I found for these fritters invited me to pulse the chickpeas in a food processor, but let’s be honest, we’d rather pulse our eyeballs in a food processor than have to clean one later. Instead, I drained a can of chickpeas and then used a whisk to mash them up in a bowl. They were still a little chunky and not uniform, but it turned out better in the fritter to have those different sizes. Using the fine shred side of a cheese grater, I grated the zucchini into that bowl, then added the rest of the ingredients (except for the oil). Heat 1-2 TB of oil on medium-high in a pan and then sploop spoonfuls (about 1/4 cup of less) of the mixture into the hot oil. I think if you’re a proper cook, you’re supposed to know exactly how long each side will need to brown, and only turn your fried things once. If you’re a normal person like me, wait at least until the fritter appears to have set a bit on the non-done side before turning it, and then feel free to flip those babies as many times as it takes before both sides look done. Gordon Ramsey suggests adding things to the pan in a clockwise fashion, so you always know which has been in the pan longest. Fancy.