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
If you are looking for a tasty Super Bowl appetizer that your friends and family will love, you’ve got to give these Football Shape Zucchini Fritters a try. These appetizers are loaded with zucchini, carrots, onions, and potatoes and can be fried or baked. Even the chicken wing and chip eating guys are your party will be chowing down on these fun football themed snacks.
Until recently, I had never tried a zucchini fritter and after my first bite I wondered where these yummy appetizers had been all my life. 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 they cook wonderful Turkish cuisine at home.
She made her version of Mücver (zucchini fritters) for the dinner and to her delight, every last one of them were gobbled up and families even asked her for the recipe.
Today, I was brainstorming ideas for Super Bowl appetizers and I asked our exchange student if she thought we could shape her Mücver into footballs like I did with my Football Shaped Proscuitto and Asiago Rice Cake Footballs, Fried Taco Footballs, Football Chicken Nuggets, and Football Shaped Hamburgers. 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
- cheese grater or food processor with grater attachment
- football shaped cookie cutter
- salad spinner or strainer
available on Amazon.com (commission earned for sales)
How to make Football Shaped Zucchini Fritters Frying Instructions:
Shred and drain your vegetables.
- 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.
Toss with flour and egg.
- 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.
Use football cookie cutter to shape fritters.
- 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.
Fry for crispy fritters.
- 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.
Brown the fritters on both sides.
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!
Pat off the excess oil.
- 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.
Decorate using Greek yogurt or sour cream.
- 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.
Can I bake these zucchini fritters instead of frying them?
- Yes!
Football Fritters Video
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.
Super Bowl Appetizers
Football Shaped Zucchini Fritters Recipe

- 2 medium size zucchini
- 1 carrot
- 1 large russet potato
- 1 small onion
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/3 cup flour
- 2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
- if baking, olive oil spray
- if frying, 1 cup vegetable oil, plus more if needed
- serve with 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
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If baking, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
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Shred the zucchini, carrot, and potato using a cheese grater or food processor.
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Finely slice and chop the onion.
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Place the veggies in a salad spinner or strainer.
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Sprinkle with salt and toss to evenly coat the veggies.
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Set aside for 10 minutes to allow the moister to drain from the vegetables.
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Spin, if using a salad spinner, or press down using paper towels if using a strainer to remove as much liquid as possible.
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Stir then let sit another 5 minutes and repeat until the veggies are quite dry.
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Pour into a large mixing bowl.
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Sprinkle on the flour and toss to coat.
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Stir in the eggs.
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If baking, spray a non-stick baking pan with olive oil cooking spray.
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Spoon the veggie mixture into a football shaped cookie cutter, creating a fritter that is about 1/4 inch thick.
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Remove cookie cutter and repeat.
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Spray olive oil spray over top of the fritters.
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Bake for 12 minutes, then remove and flip the fritters over.
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Bake for another 12-15 minutes until evenly browned on both sides.
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If frying, follow instructions in the tutorial.
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Spoon 2 tablespoons of the yogurt or sour cream into a pastry bag or zip top bag.
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Pipe laces and stripes on each of the footballs.
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Serve immediately.
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.

be sure to check out my Football Party Food ideas.
Those look so tasty. I want them for breakfast. 🙂
We ate almost all of them yesterday afternoon, but I kept three to eat today. They are really good! I recommend them even if you don't turn them into footballs.
I love football shaped food! Great idea and they look really good!
Super cute and I just love zucchini fritters!
SO CUTE! Just adorable for the Superbowl! I love themed food!
Chloe
http://rainbowsandhoneysuckle.blogspot.com/
These are so fun to make! Bet they are delicious too.
I love it! 🙂 I wonder if I could do this with potato pancakes. 🙂 Found you at Flour Me with Love: Mix It Up Monday.
Thanks, Camille. I'm sure potato pancakes would work just fine:)
These are TOO cute!! I love that the recipe is healthy : )
This is such a cool idea. Love zucchini fritters!
Hopping by and following your lovely blog's twitter and Pinterest. I blog @ Getting Healthy with Essential Oils
I am also inviting you to join Tiddle Diddle Handmade Shoppe's first giveaway event.
These are so adorable!!! Great football food idea.
So cute! Love this idea and totally doing it! Visiting from Mom on Timeout
Such a brilliant idea!
Hello!
I found you from the Mop it up Mondays link up. I would love to have you come share your post with my readers over at Sassy Little Lady’s Show and Tell Saturday. Hope to see you there!
Kathie
http://www.sassylittlelady.com/blog/show-and-tell-saturday/show-and-tell-saturday
YUM!!!! These looks delish! I hope you stop by to link- http://atozebracelebrations.com/2013/01/link-party-4.html
Nancy
Oh my goodness! These are adorable and a great way to sneak some veggies into the Super Bowl menue 😉 Great idea!
Visiting from Mix it up Monday. This i such a fun idea. You are so sweet to include your exchange student in your Super Bowl prep.
Thanks for stopping by, Michelle. My exchange student loves helping out in the kitchen and she finds what I do with food fascinating. She is very creative herself, so it is fun to have her help out.
Love these; so cute! 🙂
Mackenzie
I am obviously doing something wrong. I have now wasted four trying to get them off of my spatula that doesn't have holes. I followed the recipe exact, but adding my eggs made it a soupy disaster!! I cannot get the eggs to drain off. Help!!!
Drain more liquid out of the bowl. The water is coming out of your vegetables and the longer it sits the more moisture may come out. Just pour the whole thing into a strainer and allow the liquid to drain off. You'll still have enough egg to hold it together.
The be sure to press the mixture into the cookie cutter compacting it so that it holds together. Mine slid right into the pan, except when I got the cookie cutter really hot, then as I made the next one, the batter stuck to the sides of the cookie cutter. So keep the cookie cutter clean and make sure it cools down before pouring more filling into it.
I hope this helps. Let me know how things go.
When I make potato pancakes, I always put the grated potatoes in an old dish towel, bring all of the corners together, and squeeze the moisture out of them. The more moisture you get out of them, the crispier the pancakes.
Great suggestion. Thanks!
Goodbye chicken nuggets forever! Yay!
Can't wait to try them! Go "USC Gamecocks!"