Zucchini Takes the Cake!

Here we go! I made Greek Zucchini Cakes, served them with sour cream and fresh dill, and a tomato salad!

Greek Zucchini Cakes

1 pound zucchini, grated
1 teaspoon kosher salt or 3/4 teaspoon table salt
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3 green onions, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup chopped pine nuts (I put these in a bag and smacked them with a meat mallet...my favorite way to chop nuts!)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill, or 1 teaspoon dried (I used fresh - probably 2T though...I love fresh dill!)
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano leaves, or 1/2 teaspoon dried (I used dried)
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon freshly milled black pepper
Olive oil

Combine the grated zucchini and kosher salt. Set aside for 5 minutes (no more, or it will be mush). Rinse in cold water and squeeze dry in a kitchen towel or press in a strainer or colander until dry.

Combine the cheese, egg, green onions, flour, pine nuts, dill, oregano, garlic, and pepper in a large bowl; fold in the zucchini. Form into 24 small cakes (about 2 tablespoons of mixture for each) and saute in olive oil, turning once, until browned, about 3 minutes on each side. (So, I made about 6 cakes instead and fried them up in olive oil.) Serve immediately.

I served this with a tomato salad:

2 boxes grape tomatoes - halved

A good chunk of feta - crumbled

6 big basil leaves (or more...or less...whatever you like!) - stack and roll them up like a cigar, then finely slice

1 clove of garlic - finely, finely chopped

Juice from ~1/2 a Meyer lemon (The more sour kind of lemon would be phenomenal as well! Whatever you've got! Or, if you're out of citrus, whatever vinegar is your favorite would be great as well! It just needs a little bit of acid.)

Drizzle with olive oil, grind a bit of black pepper (the feta gives this enough salt, I think), mix well, and enjoy!

What I Thought

These cakes are seriously delicious! The flavors are fantastic! But, these things were barely holding it together. I'm thinking either I've got to either squeeze the water out of the zucchini way better (I just pushed it out in the colander, but maybe actually squeezing it with a paper towel would be better), make the cakes smaller like the recipe actually calls for, or make a change to the recipe (like more flour and egg or something) if I want a bigger cake.
Besides that though, these were great! They really did not take long...a good weeknight/after work supper, and I made the salad while the cakes were frying, so everything was done at the same time!

Enjoy!