Quick and easy spinach and ricotta fritters with simple, delicious and nutritious ingredients. Perfect for lunch, dinner and snack for babies, toddlers and adults.
Although we are a family that eats everything, meat is on our menu only about 1-2 times a week. We eat fish also about twice per week and the rest of our meals are mostly plant-based.
These can sometimes be a challenge, especially if you are serving to both parents and children. So quick and easy nutritious meals full of vegetables are a regular in our family.
And fritters are a great addition to the menu. But to avoid serving the same thing over and over again I tend to mix things up a bit every now and then.
These Baked Spinach & Ricotta Fritters are my latest "invention" and I must say they are delicious! And nutritious if you check out the nutrition facts at the end of the recipe.
The best part is that you don't need to serve them as lunch or dinner but they can also be a great snack that you can take on-the-go!
And they are freezable, so you can make a big batch for those days you are just not in the mood to cook.
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Nutrition & Ingredients
Millet
- The amount of uncooked millet for this recipe is 100g which is about ½ cup of uncooked millet. This would yield about 280g of cooked millet, which is about 2½ cups
- I often use millet as a grain in baby & toddler recipes because of it's great nutritional content. It is a great source of minerals such as phosphorus and magnesium but also has lots of fiber, especially a type called lignans, which are great for digestion
Ricotta
- The reason I chose ricotta cheese for this recipe is simply because I had it at home and had to put it to use before it went bad! It is a great lean cheese to use in these kinds of recipes but I know that it might not be available all the time so substituting with plain cottage cheese is another option
- If you are using cottage cheese, I would recommend you go for the full fat version because the lean ones tend to have a bit of a sour taste
Spinach
- My recommendation is to use fresh spinach leaves here and not frozen spinach. Using frozen spinach could make the fritter mixture soggy and it won't bake or form as easily
- Spinach is filled with minerals such as iron, potassium, and magnesium but also vitamins A, C, and folate
Eggs
- Use organic or free-range ones as they have a better nutritional profile and the chickens are not treated with hormones and antibiotics
- Eggs are a great source of B vitamins, especially choline as well as protein
Wholewheat flour
- I tend to choose wholegrain spelt flour because it is far more digestable than regular wheat flour, especially for babies and toddlers. Unfortunately it is not always available and not every store sells it so wholewheat flour is a great alternative
- Wholewheat flour contains more nutrients than regular white flour. These nutrients include minerals such as iron, magnesium and manganese but also complex carbohydrates and fiber
Chia seeds
- Chia seeds are a great source of fats, calories and fiber
Shredded cheese
- You can really use any kind of shredded cheese here. I prefer to use shredded mozzarella just because I find it healthier than other options. We have also tried this recipe using hard goat's cheese and it turned out great.
- It's a great source of fat, protein, calcium and calories
How To Make Baked Spinach and Ricotta Fritters
Cook the millet. Put the millet into a pot, add water (about 200 ml / 1 cup US standard) and bring to a boil. Continue to cook the millet over low-to-medium heat until it fully absorbs all the water. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
Use your time... Meanwhile, wash the spinach leaves. Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F.
Make the fritter mixture. Put the cooked millet, ricotta, spinach leaves and eggs into a blender and blend until a smooth mixture is formed. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend into a smooth mixture. Season to taste.
Bake the fritters. Place a baking sheet onto a baking tray. Take one tablespoon of the mixture and place onto the baking sheet about 3 cm apart. Repeat with the rest of the mixture. Once all 12 fritters are placed on the baking sheet, use your hands to arrange them into thin and round fritters. Bake for about 45 minutes (based on the strength of your oven).
Cool and serve. Allow to cool before serving. Serve with a tzatziki, yogurt or tomato sauce.
At What Age Can Babies Eat This?
If you are doing baby-led weaning, you can give this to babies as early as 6 months, given that you have tested for allergens beforehand (egg yolk, egg white, cheese, wholewheat flour, chia seeds) separately.
Also, omit any salt in this recipe for babies under 1.
How to Serve to Babies and Toddlers
Baby-led weaning. Serve as is. You can add yogurt or hummus on the side for them to dip.
9 months+ or whenever ready for pincer grasp. If you have transitioned from purees (you can read more about how to do that here) then you want to cut the fritters up into tiny pieces, the size of a pinky fingernail, that your baby can easily grab.
Toddlers. Serve as is with yogurt or hummus as a dip.
Wean With Confidence eBOOK
This is so much more than a recipe book. This is a full weaning plan written by a PhD nutritionist for your child's entire first year, based on the latest science. This will take away the mental load of wondering if you're feeding your child the right food. It's what we wish we had when we were weaning our own children.
Tips & Tricks For The Perfect Fritters
Know your fritter mixture. Once you blend all the ingredients into a mixture it might seem that it is too "loose" to bake. Don't worry. The wholewheat flour, chia seeds and eggs will bind the mixture perfectly while baking.
Don't overbake them. Although the recipe says to bake for about 45 minutes, I would suggest that you check on them after about 30 minutes of baking. 45 minutes is based on my oven but yours might need more or less.
The trick is to take them out once you have a nice light brown crispy top of the fritters (and not a dark brown one). If it seems that they are not fully baked from the inside, don't worry. They are still in the process of baking when you take them out and will be just the right consistency once they cool a bit.
Possible Variations
Fry them on a pan. Although I prefer baking fritters in the oven, you can also fry them in a pan. The reason I almost always use an oven is because I have those extra 30-45 minutes for myself as opposed to frying each fritter separately and standing by the stove. Baking in the oven is also a healthier version of thermically processing food because it doesn't use excessive oil. But if you do decide to fry them, pour some olive oil on the pan, take out a tablespoon of the fritter mixture and place on the pan, flatten with the back of the spoon and fry one side for about 3 minutes. Then simply turn around and fry for another 2 minutes. Make sure you do all this on medium heat.
Vary your cheeses. As I already mentioned, you can really make these Spinach & Ricotta Fritters your own by choosing your own types of cheeses. Instead of the ricotta use a soft or semi-soft cheese and instead of shredded mozzarella that I use you can use any kind of hard shredded cheese.
Vary your grains and seeds. Instead of wholewheat flour, you can really use any of choice. Even rolled oats. And instead of chia seeds, flaxseed or flaxseed meal is a great substitute.
Other Vegetarian Recipes:
Recipe
Spinach & Ricotta Fritters
Ingredients
- ½ cup dry millet 100g
- ½ cup ricotta cheese 100g
- 2⅓ cup spinach 70g
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1.7 oz shredded cheese 50g
- salt omit for babies under 1
- pepper
Instructions
- Put the millet into a pot, add water (about 200 mL/1 cup) and bring to a boil.
- Continue to cook the millet over low-to-medium heat until it fully absorbs all the water.
- Allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, wash the spinach leaves.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F.
- Put the cooked millet, ricotta, spinach leaves and eggs into a blender and blend until a smooth mixture is formed.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and blend into a smooth mixture. Season to taste.
- Place a baking sheet onto a baking tin.
- Take one tablespoon of the mixture and place onto the baking sheet about 3 cm apart.
- Repeat with the rest of the mixture.
- Once all 12 fritters are placed on the baking sheet, use your hands to arrange them into thin and round fritters.
- Bake for about 45 minutes (based on the strength of your oven).
- Allow to cool before serving.
- Serve with a tzatziki, yogurt or tomato sauce.
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