Baked Zucchini Corn Fritters
on Jun 20, 2022, Updated May 19, 2025
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Served with a fresh tomato salad, these easy zucchini corn fritters bake on a sheet pan in the oven. They have shredded zucchini, fresh corn kernels, scallions, parmesan and eggs in the batter. Once you pull them out of the oven, they are golden brown on the edges and soft in the middle. They are a great vegetarian appetizer or main dish.
For more oven fritter recipes, try these baked sweet potato fritters or these baked chickpea fritters.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
No three ingredients say summer more than corn, zucchini and tomatoes. It’s my mission during the warm months to incorporate this veggie trio into a single meal when and wherever I can, and it doesn’t take much effort.
It is so much easier to bake fritters on a sheet pan rather than frying them in a skillet with oil. You have more control and consistency in the oven. It is so much more hands off and less messy. Plus you can make them all at the same time.
To go with these healthy zucchini corn fritters, I make a quick marinated tomato salad using ripe cherry tomatoes. Once you add the salad, the dish feels complete. Again, it must be the seasonal magic of tomatoes, zucchini and corn.
Why Baked Fritters are the Best
Besides the obvious that baked fritters are healthier than fried ones, they are just easier to make. No special equipment like a deep fryer with a vat of hot oil is needed. Just reach for a baking sheet.
Rather than cycling through multiple batches of fritters in a skillet to pan-fry them, you can cook them all together. Then they will turn out at the same level of doneness. Baking is such a controlled way of cooking fritters that it takes away the guesswork.
Ingredients & Substitutions
This is what you need for the fritters:
- Zucchini: Look for zucchini that have smooth skin that’s a deep saturated green color. Overall they should feel firm and not have any soft spots. You can substitute with yellow squash and you will have more golden fritters.
- Corn: My preference is to use fresh sweet corn. Look for husks that are wrapped tight. The silk on the ends should be a little bit damp. You can substitute with canned corn. Drain and rinse it. You will need 2 cups of corn kernels. I don’t recommend frozen corn because of its higher water content.
- Scallions add a nice light green onion flavor. I think of them as cross between fresh herbs and onions.
- Parmesan cheese, finely grated, blends right into the fritter batter. You can use cheddar cheese instead.
- Eggs: Two lightly beaten eggs act as the binder that holds everything together.
- Flour: You can use all-purpose or a gluten free flour like almond flour in the batter. It, along with the eggs, holds the fritters together.
- Salt & pepper: You need kosher salt for the zucchini and black pepper for seasoning.
This is everything you need for the tomato salad:
- Tomatoes: Cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes are best. A mix of colors looks beautiful. All red would be fine too.
- Garlic: The salad has a minced garlic clove.
- Scallions: Also in the fritters, these are mild and oniony with the tomatoes. If you have fresh basil, you can add some to the salad.
- White wine vinegar adds acidity to the dressing.
- Olive oil: Make sure to use high quality extra virgin olive oil.
- Salt & pepper season the salad.
Optional Dipping Sauce
If you want a dipping sauce for your fritters, you can make one with 1/3 cup tahini or Greek yogurt and stir it with 1 minced garlic clove, juice of half a lemon, pinch of salt and 3-4 tablespoons water.
Prepping The Zucchini
One of the most important parts of the recipe is getting the zucchini ready to be combined with the corn and the rest of the ingredients:
- To shred the zucchini, you can use the large holes of a box grater or the shredding attachment on your food processor.
- Then you need to salt the zucchini to pull out the moisture. Zucchini is a vegetable with a lot of excess water. If you don’t get it out, your fritters will be dense soggy. Put the grated zucchini in a colander and sprinkle it with salt. Let it sit for 15 minutes.
- Even though some water will drip out, you still have to wrap the zucchini and squeeze it.
How To Make Oven-Baked Zucchini Corn Fritters
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
1. Prep the zucchini. Toss it with salt in a colander and wait 15 minutes. In batches, squeeze out the water with the zucchini in a towel.
2. Combine the zucchini, corn, Parmesan, flour, scallions, eggs and pepper in a large mixing bowl.
3. Scoop the zucchini mixture by the 1/4-cup-full onto the prepared sheet pan. Gently press them down. They should be about 2 inches apart.
4. Bake the fritters until lightly golden, about 8-10 minutes per side.
5. Make the tomato salad while the fritters are in the oven. Whisk together the garlic, white wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl.
6. Stir the tomatoes and scallions into the vinaigrette.
Serving
This is a great recipe because it can be a vegetarian appetizer, snack or side dish or a fantastic summer dinner. Adjust the serving size depending on what else you’re planning to serve and how many people you are feeding.
Leftovers, Storage & Freezing
You can store the fritters and tomato salad in separate airtight containers in the refrigerator up to 3 days. Reheat them in the microwave or in a 350-degree F oven. To keep the fritters longer, up to 1 month, you can freeze them. It helps to put pieces of parchment paper or wax paper between them, so they don’t stick together. You can reheat frozen fritters in the oven at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes. Do not freeze the tomato salad.
I also like to eat them cold in an arugula salad with lemon vinaigrette. I will roughly chop them, and this takes my salad from a side to an entree.
More Corn & Zucchini Recipes
Zucchini Corn Salad
Black Bean Corn Salad
Tomato Corn Orecchiette
Zucchini Cacio e Pepe
Parmesan Roasted Zucchini
Baked Zucchini Fries
Zucchini Corn Fritters
Ingredients
For fritters
- 1 pound zucchini, about 2 medium zucchini, trimmed and shredded
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 ears corn, kernels sliced off cobs
- 1 ounce grated Parmesan cheese (about 1/4 cup)
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose or almond flour
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced
- 2 eggs lightly beaten
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
For tomato salad
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 3 teaspoons white wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes
- 1 scallion, thinly sliced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- Place the zucchini in a colander and toss with 1 teaspoon kosher salt. Let stand for 15 minutes. Squeeze out the excess water from the zucchini using paper towels.
- In a large bowl combine the zucchini, corn, Parmesan, flour, scallions, egg and pepper.
- Scoop the fritters by the 1/4-cup-full onto the prepared pan. Lightly press down into a 3-inch-diameter disc, spacing 2 inches apart on the sheet pan. You should end up with 10-12 fritters.
- Bake until lightly golden brown, about 8-10 minutes per side.
- While the fritters are baking, make the tomato salad. In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Stir in the tomatoes and scallions.
- Serve the fritters with the tomato salad.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This sounds amazing! Unfortunately – I can’t have almonds. Can I sub wheat flour, and would it be the same amount? Thanks!
I’ve used wheat flour before. Just do the same amount.
These look amazing! Can you sub regular flour for the almond? If so, are the amounts the same? we’ve got a nut allergy in my house! Thanks!
Hi Elisabeth. You can absolutely use regular flour. Enjoy!
Do you remove the zucchini skin or leave it on before shredding? This recipe is great for someone who is on WW. Looking forward to making this recipe!
Randye
I leave the skin on the zucchini. Enjoy the recipe!
I added some chopped dill and cilantro to the recipe and used regular flour – Came out nice and this was an easy recipe to follow.
PS: what is an ounce of Parmesan in cups or tablespoons? I wasn’t sure, so I just added some to taste. Thanks!
An ounce of grated Parmesan is about 2 tablespoons.
Would like to make this dairy-free – can the parmesan be removed or replaced?
Hi Juli. I haven’t tested this, but you could try to use 1 tablespoon of nutritional yeast instead of the Parmesan.
Outstanding!!!
Loved these the first one I made them. I have fresh corn & zucchini so planning on making this week. Have you paired them with any sauce before – maybe something a little spicy?
For sauce, you could try my herby tahini or avocado crema. To give them a spicy kick, add sriracha or red pepper flakes.