I’m just…overwhelmed right now.

I want to eat all the things in Houston. There are so many amazing restaurants and dishes and coffee shops and chefs and pizzas and I can’t even fathom how I would ever get to all of them, let alone pick one. The thought is paralyzing. It makes me want to sit on my couch and eat these fritters all day while watching this (I like it SO much better than the other show; I think because the storyline centers on doomed love. I’m a sucker for any kind of love story.) Actually, I’d want to do ^ no matter what because I’m obsessed with both o’ those things.

It’s kind of like when you get sucked into those news stories about a tragedy somewhere in the world and then you start spiraling into thoughts about how many other problems there are in the world and how many people are dying and sick and worse off than you and what can you even do about it? Thoughts become paralyzing and again I’m figuratively sitting on my couch eating carrot fritters. Useless.

On that cheery note, these are the best things I’ve made in a week. My sister and a few friends came over for dinner on Saturday on a mission to make salmon teriyaki. I made sure to have salmon on hand, but didn’t really think about anything else. I did have a 5-pound bag of carrots on hand though, so we improvised and after cooking up some quinoa, and frying these fritters, we had a pretty well-rounded meal.

Since then, I think I’ve eaten my weight in carrots. Leafy greens, step aside: this is how I crave my veggies now. Lightly fried until tender with a slight crunch, golden-crusted, and bound together with a protein-rich egg. Topped with another gently fried egg to soft-yolk perfection and creamy slices of avocado, this is a meal to make you forget you’re eating healthy. And trying to cram more protein down your throat than you thought humanly possible.

As for that thing I’m waiting on…well, I hear patience is a virtue.

I think we can all agree my egg-photographing skills need some work, but these were still seriously so delicious.

Notes

You’re probably all, “thanks Erika–I really needed a recipe for pan-fried carrots shards” but I really needed to do something to make me feel like a productive member of society AND there are three important things you can learn here:

Shaving carrots > food-processed/grated carrots. I tried both grating and shaving the carrots and the gritty texture of grated carrots weren’t my favorite–it was like trying to eat a veggie burger made out of just carrots, and that makes for a crumbly experience.
Fried things can still be healthy. Half a teaspoon of oil. Measure it! It seriously is enough to fry 6 fritters. That is like a tiny drop of oil per fritter. Not sure if pan-fried things qualify as clean-eating, but I think these should definitely qualify.
Eat moar carrots! They’re good for you.

I think I first got this idea from PaleOMG and her spiralized sweet potato noodle buns, but these are (almost) even better because you don’t need a fancy spiralizer and they’re crazy low-carb if you’re saving your carbs for, say, pancakes.

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Shaved Carrot Fritters

These very lightly breaded and fried carrot fritters are the perfect vehicle for delicious toppings. They also make great low-carb "buns" for burgers and they're delicious on their own.

Servings 12 fritters

Calories 21kcal

Ingredients

4 carrots shaved using a vegetable peeler
1 egg
1 tablespoon flour I used whole wheat. I'm curious what oat, buckwheat or spelt flour would be like.
1 teaspoon olive oil

Instructions

Shaving carrots is a little tedious, but it goes fast. I found it was easiest to shave half the carrot going one way, then flipping it and shaving it the other way until you end up with one long skinny piece of carrot. At that point, you can cut it length-wise, or I just snapped it in half and mixed it in with the rest of the shaved pieces.
Once you’re finished prepping the carrots, start preheating a large frying pan over medium heat. Mix the egg and flour into the pile of carrots (I used a fork for this) until the carrots look evenly coated. Add ½ teaspoon of oil to the pan and use a spatula to evenly coat the surface. Use a fork to twirl about ¼ cup of the carrot mixture around the tines like you would spaghetti, then plop into the pan. Basically you just want a big clump of carrot that looks fritter-like—it doesn’t have to be the perfect twirl.
I cooked three fritters at a time, flipping after about 2 minutes. They should develop a nice golden crust on the bottom and be fairly easy to flip over. Cook for another 1-2 minutes, remove from heat and repeat with the rest of the carrot mixture. I made 12 fritters in 4 batches of 3, adding ½ a teaspoon of oil every other batch.
Eat topped with an egg + avocado or with a veggie burger!