Super Bowl Appetizers – Football Shaped Zucchini Fritters (aka, Mücver)

Football fans at your Super Bowl, tailgating or homegating parties will cheer when you serve these Football Shaped Zucchini Fritters. Filled with zucchini, carrots, potatoes, and onions, these fun appetizers can be baked or fried.
Recipe originally posted on January 18, 2013. New video tutorial added January 30, 2018.

Football Shaped Zucchini Fritters

Last weekend, we enjoyed an international meal prepared by a group of exchange students from Norway, Germany, Brazil and Turkey. Our exchange student was born and raised in Germany, but very rarely eats German food, as her parents are from Turkey and cook wonderful Turkish cuisine at home. It has been a joy to eat and learn to cook her favorite foods including Mücver, zucchini fritters, which she made for the meal. To her delight, every last one of the Mücver were gobbled up and families even asked her for the recipe.

Today, I was brainstorming ideas for Super Bowl XLVII and I asked our student if she thought we could shape her Mücver into footballs. She enthusiastically answered, “yes,” and was so excited that I wanted to share her family’s recipe with all of you.

It was so much fun to work together to create these festive football shaped appetizers which will be the perfect party food for football fans who want to enjoy something out of the ordinary at their Super Bowl parties.

Supplies needed to make these Zucchini Fritter Footballs are available on Amazon.com.
(commission earned for sales)

cheese grater or food processor with grater attachment

football shaped cookie cutter

salad spinner or strainer

Watch this video tutorial to see how you can make these Zucchini Football Fritters for your party. In this version I baked my fritters. Below the video you can see my original step-by-step tutorial where I fried the fritters.

How to make Football Shaped Zucchini Fritters Frying Instructions:

Peel the zucchini, carrot, potato, and onion. Shred the zucchini, carrot, and potato using a cheese grater or a food processor fitted with a shredding attachment. Finely slice and chop the onion.

Place the vegetables in a strainer, sprinkle and toss with salt, and let sit for 10 minutes. Press down on the vegetables, allowing excess water to drain off. I used a salad spinner and spun the vegetables dry, which worked perfectly.

Let sit for 5 more minutes and drain again, removing as much liquid as possible.

Pour shredded vegetables into a mixing bowl.

Sprinkle the flour over the shredded vegetables. Toss to coat.

Add eggs and mix until well combined.

As you work, if you have a lot of excess moisture, drain it off.

Heat 1 cup vegetable oil in a 12″ non-stick pan until it reaches 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Set your metal football shaped cookie cutter down on a spatula/turner. Fill the cookie cutter with a spoonful of the zucchini mixture.  Press down to create a 1/4 inch thick football.

Carefully slide the filled cookie cutter into the oil, lifting the cutter, allowing the football shaped mixture to gently glide into the pan. I recommend using metal tongs to do this job.

Move quickly, don’t allow the cookie cutter to get really hot or it will begin to cook the filling as you create your next football fritter. Wipe the cookie cutter clean, often.

NOTE: I also found that I could shaped the football on the spatula then lift it off and slide the fritter into the oil, reshaping it as needed. The football fritters weren’t as perfectly shaped, but this way you don’t have to worry about lifting up a hot cookie cutter.

Our exchange student and I worked together; I filled the cookie cutter and slid them into the skillet while she fried them, flipping them over as they browned on each side.

You want your fritters to be nice nice and crispy but not burnt, so fry them to a deep golden brown. The edges of your football fritters will be a bit darker, and that is fine.

By baking them, as I did for the video version of this tutorial, the fritters stayed a bit thicker and didn’t brown around the edges quite as much.

I personally preferred them fried, but they taste really good when baked too. They just aren’t as crispy. Of course the baked zucchini fritters have few calories which is always a bonus!

Once you have fried your football shaped zucchini fritters, set them on paper towels to drain off excess oil. I also pat the tops with paper towels to really remove as much oil as possible.

At this point they can be decorated and served, however, I’m guessing most of you wont want this mess in your kitchen while you have guests. So, make your fritters then put them in an airtight container and refrigerate them for up to a few days. When you are ready to serve them, place them on a baking sheet and heat them in a 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes, until heated through.

If you just bake them then heat the oven to 400 degrees F and bake on each side for 12-15 minutes. You want both sides to be golden brown. The baked fritters will be thicker as not as much moister will evaporate while they are cooking.

To decorate them: fill a disposable pastry bag, optionally fitted with a small round decorating tip, with plain Greek Yogurt or  sour cream. You can also just use a zip top bag with a small hole cut in one tip.

Pipe laces and stripes onto each football fritter.

Place on a platter and serve alongside the remaining Greek yogurt.

The Football Shaped Zucchini Fritters are great hot but are also quite good room temperature or even cold.  

If you want more tailgating or homegating party ideas for the college football season,
be sure to check out my Football Party Food ideas.