Orzo-Veggie Fritters

Makes 1 dozen fritters

Recipe from Everyday Food

Husband-Tested in Alice’s Kitchen

Yesterday, I made Corn and Zucchini Orzo Salad.  The recipe makes heaps and heaps of salad.  I reserved 4 cups of the salad to make these fritters for today’s lunch.  Be sure to serve these with just picked tomatoes.  They taste great together. 

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons honey

Coarse salt and ground pepper

4 cups orzo salad from Corn and Zucchini Orzo Salad

12 slices bacon***

2 large tomatoes, sliced

2 avocados, thinly sliced

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, flour, and honey; season with salt and pepper. With a rubber spatula, fold in orzo salad.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium. Working in batches if necessary, cook bacon until fat is rendered and bacon is crisp, 10 to 12 minutes, flipping once. Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain; reserve fat.

In batches, drop orzo mixture by 1/4 cupfuls into pan. With a small spatula, flatten each slightly and cook until golden, 2 to 3 minutes per side; drain on paper towels. Serve fritters with bacon, tomatoes, and avocados.

Note:  I had bacon that I had previously fried in the freezer and bacon grease in the fridge, so I popped the bacon in the microwave to crisp up and used a bit of the bacon grease for frying the fritters.  By frying a freezing several pounds of bacon at once (I do this outside on our screened-in porch) it makes this dish go really fast.  If you’d rather go vegetarian with this, you could certainly use butter or olive oil instead.