Our hot lunch recipe wagon presents a hot lunch you can take to work or school. Our recipes are quick, easy and less than 30 minutes to cook. Cook our recipes the night before, refrigerate and reheat the next day. Or, on the other hand, you can cook our meals and freeze them for next week’s lunch. Our special today is Vegetables in Nightgowns
HOT LUNCH RECIPE WAGON: Vegetables in Nightgowns
Fritters are a venerable American specialty. They’re really nothing more than bite-size pieces of food coated with pancake batter. Babies and children adore them. These fritters are great warm and surprisingly good cold, which makes them good lunches.
2 quarts vegetable oil
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons milk, or more as needed
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk
Vegetables
12 bite size pieces of vegetables such as broccoli florets, cauliflower florets, mushrooms, summer squash rounds, carrot rounds, sweet potato slices, asparagus tips, green beans, eggplant cubes, kohirabi rounds, whole okra pods, (don’t cut off stem end or the okra will get slimy) red or green bell pepper squares.
- Place the oil in a heavy, medium pot or an electric frying pan and heat 375 degreesF
- Whisk together all the remaining ingredients except the vegetables. If the batter seems to be a bit thick, whisk in more milk. (You can mix the batter in the blender if you like)
- Dip vegetable pieces into the batter and let extra batter drip off for a few seconds. Carefully drop vegetables into the hot oil and cook, turning gently with tongs, until brown (time will vary from vegetable to vegetable, generally it takes 2 to 5 minutes). Drain and pack in a heated lunch tote for lunch on the go.
NOTE
The secret to making these crisp and light is to regulate the temperature off the oil so that it remains constantly at 375 degrees F and not to crowd the pan. A thermometer is highly recommended for this task. The easiest method of all however, is to use an electric appliance that automatically regulates the temperature, such as an electric frying pan or a deep fryer.
VARIATION
Make fritters out of tofu cubes ( use firm or extra firm tofu)
STORAGE
The raw batter can be kept in the refrigerator for a day or so. The cooked fritters will also keep for about a day in the refrigerator.
You can carry your hot lunch in a heated lunch tote.
HOT LUNCH CHEF