Do you love pancakes? Do you wish you could have them for dinner?* Then allow me to introduce you to leek fritters, or, as I have taken to calling them, “pancakes of the night.”

For months, every time my best friend and I talked about omg-I-cooked-a-thing-and-also-what-should-I-cook-next (a near-constant topic of conversation and also the reason she is my soulmate), she mentioned these Ottolenghi leek fritters. And for months, I demurred. To me, “fritter” meant heavy, greasy, and fried– a nice treat, perhaps, but not something I’d want to cook for myself.

Wowee, was I wrong. Like your favorite pancakes, these are fluffy, airy, and light, with very little oil required for frying, provided that you use a non-stick pan. (Also similar to pancakes: I can’t stop myself from eating a couple hot off the griddle while frying up the batch.) Unlike your favorite pancakes, the sautéed leeks, open-handed use of spices, and insanely zingy yogurt-herb sauce put these guys squarely in savory territory.

Like many Ottolenghi recipes, these fritters are a bit involved: you have to sauté the leeks first, separate the eggs, and whisk the whites in one bowl and the batter in another before you’re ready to fry them up. But for a weekend lunch or dinner, they’re an absolute delight, and require little more than a side of arugula and a glass of wine to make a full meal. And since they’re almost as good at room temperature as they are warm, the leftovers make an ideal packed lunch.

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*If not, this might not be the recipe for you. Relatedly, I might not be for you.

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Previously:
One year ago: Mexico City Food Guide
Two years ago: How to Reduce the Bite of Red Onions
Three years ago: Truffled Kettle Corn

And for my Australians:
Six months ago: Bold Marinara Sauce + Instructions for Safe Canning (I recently gave this to a friend with a newborn, who said, “I will stop at nothing to have that pasta sauce again.”)
One and a half years ago: Salade Lyonnaise + A Little Taste of Lyon
Two and a half years ago: Zahav’s Hummus

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Leek Fritters with Herb-Yogurt Sauce

Adapted for quantity and simplicity from Yotam Ottolengi’s Plenty
Makes 16 4-inch fritters (enough for about 5 meals when served with a side salad)

Ingredients

Herb-yogurt sauce
1 cup (225g) greek yogurt
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups (45g) cilantro, roughly chopped
1/2 cup (20g) parsley, roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt

Fritters
4-5 big leeks (1.5 pounds/680 grams once sliced)
7 shallots, thinly sliced
olive oil for sautéing and frying
heaping 3/4 cup (30g) parsley, chopped
1 teaspoon coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
small pinch red pepper flakes
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 egg whites
1 1/4 cups (190g) self-rising flour (Don’t have any on hand? Easy DIY here.)
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 whole egg
1 cup (236 mL) milk
7 tablespoons (100g) butter, melted

Instructions

To make the sauce, blend all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor until uniformly green. Set aside.

Cut the leeks into scant 1-inch-thick slices. Rinse in a colander, being sure to get out all the sand, and drain dry. Place a nonstick pan over medium heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil. Sauté the leeks and shallots for 10-15 minutes, or until soft. Transfer to a large bowl and add the parsley, spices, sugar, and salt. Let cool.

In a separate, medium-large bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Then fold the egg whites into the leek mixture. Do not overmix.

In that same bowl, mix flour, baking powder, whole egg, milk, and butter to from a batter. Gently mix it into the egg white and vegetable mixture.

Wipe out the nonstick frying pan. Place it over medium heat. Drizzle with olive oil. Scoop out about a 1/4 cup of batter per fritter into the hot pan. Flatten out the tops a bit to make the fritters a bit thinner (this will help them cook more evenly). Fry until the bottoms are golden brown and bubbles appear on the top, then flip and fry 3ish more minutes. (If the outsides of the fritters are burning before the insides are fully cooked, lower the heat a touch.) Serve warm, with the sauce on the side or drizzled over the top.

Leftovers

You can fry all the batter at once, saving the remaining fritters for leftovers, to be reheated in the microwave or the toaster oven.

Alternatively, fry off just what you need, then place the unused batter in the fridge, where it will keep for 2 days.