Garlic Scapes and Scallion Fritters - Enjoy as an appetizer or snack after your next trip to a farmer's market, where you can find beautiful garlic scapes in abundance.

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram then you might have heard that I'm mildly obsessed with a local farmer's market. I say mildly, but some others have accused me of being full on addicted. I can't help it, the one we venture to is great. Every Thursday, the kids and I hop in the car, drive 45 minutes to get there and then we spend the entire afternoon there (okay, sometimes well into the evening too).

One of my favorite things about farmer's markets is I can always find ingredients that I can't find in the regular grocery store. I actually started going to this one in hopes of finding zucchini blossoms so I could make some Fried Zucchini Blossoms; my favorite summertime treat. I wasn't able to find any zucchini blossoms there but I did stumble upon garlic scapes.

I know some of you might be familiar with scapes but they are something totally new to me. I've been seeing some recipes lately with garlic scapes on other food blogs so I figured why not give it a go. From what I had read on other sites garlic scapes are part of the garlic plant. Apparently farmers remove them so the actual garlic bulb can grow bigger. In the past they've been discarded but more recently they've become a CSA and farmer's market specialty.

While I was roaming around the farmer's market I also picked up some beautiful scallions. I immediately had scallion pancakes in mind. Although I've eaten many a scallion pancake, I've never actually made a scallion pancake. After I looked up a few recipes I saw that most included making a dough and rolling it out etc. and I really didn't feel like fussing with all of that so I thought something along the line of a fritter would be easy enough.

After the fritters were done I decided that I was madly in love with them but I needed a second opinion. I couldn't decide if they were too scalliony (yes I'm actually making that into a word) or too garlicky so I texted my friend down the street to ask her to taste test. She was up here in a matter of minutes and she gave me her stamp of approval! Next up, our oldest came down stairs and she ate some with a glowing review and lastly, the husband inhaled a few when he returned home too. So, it's not just me, people are loving these fritters!

And so you're not feeling too badly for me, my grandmother called me the next day to tell me she had two giant bags of zucchini flowers for me that she picked fresh that morning. So I'd call this whole experience a win/win!

Some of our other favorite things about the farmer's market are strawberries, chocolate buns, lobster grilled cheese, kohlrabi, peas and huge cookies, bigger than the kids heads!

What are YOUR favorite farmer's market finds?

Printable Recipe Card

Garlic Scape and Scallion Fritters

Christine

4.34 from 3 votes

Print Recipe

Ingredients

½ Cup chopped scapes
1 Cup chopped scallions
1 Cup flour all purpose
1 Teaspoon salt
1 Large egg
¾ Cup water
Olive oil

Soy Dipping Sauce

¼ Cup soy sauce
2 Tablespoon rice vinegar
¼ Teaspoon sesame oil
¼ Teaspoon red chili paste
¼ Teaspoon ginger paste

Instructions

In a bowl place scapes and scallions. Add flour, salt and egg and mix with a fork. Slowly stir in water, a small bit at a time, just until the consistency of a very thick pancake batter. If batter is too loose, sprinkle in a bit more flour.
In a skillet, place just enough oil to coat the bottom and heat over medium/high heat. Once the oil is hot, drop fritter batter in by large spoon or ladle. Cook fritters until browned about 3-5 minutes. Flip over and cook other side the same. Remove to paper towel lined plate to remove excess oil. Work in batches being careful not to overcrowd the pan. Add more oil to the pan as needed in between batches.
Serve with soy dipping sauce if desired.

Garlic Scapes and Scallion Fritters