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This easy Guatemalan recipe for tortitas de ejotes, featuring fresh green beans and eggs, makes a batch of fritter-style pancakes that are perfect for an appetizer, nutritious breakfast or light lunch. Serve these delicious vegetarian fritters with a salsa for dipping or tuck them inside a crusty French roll with mayonnaise, slivers of red onion and a handful of fresh lettuce.
In spring — when the weather is beginning to hint at warmer weather — I crave fresh vegetables. That means it’s a perfect time to make tortitas de ejote, a traditional Guatemalan food featuring fresh green beans in a fritter batter. This easy Guatemalan dish is also popular in Mexico where fresh green beans are available year round.
This green bean recipe is also a good one to have on hand in summer. If you have a bounty of green beans in your garden or bought green beans at the market and are wondering how to use all them all … then this recipe is for you.
Not only is it super easy to make, it’s so delicious you’ll literally see bushels of green beans disappearing from your table. You don’t have to worry too much if some of your green beans are a bit stringy, they’ll come out tender in this recipe.
You can easily scale this recipe up or down depending on the quantity of green beans you have.
These tortitas de ejotes also make a bright side dish for a spring time meal. And best of all, for those of us who love to entertain, these easy-to-make bites of goodness can also be served as an appetizer. Serve them with a tomato salsa such as Guatemalan chirmol.
Shopping in the Markets of Guatemala
In the markets of Guatemala such as the incredible market of Chichicastenango located 90 miles northwest of Guatemala City, there’s never a shortage of green beans and they’re especially tasty, crispy and bursting with fresh-picked sweetness.
Unlike other fresh produce such as watercress used in our recipe for tortitas de berro, you don’t need to disinfect green beans in an antibacterial wash such as Microdyn for this recipe as the green beans are pre cooked prior to being battered.
Tortitas de Ejotes is similar to another popular Guatemalan dish called envueltos de ejotes, which are whole fresh green beans wrapped in a light batter. My mother-in-law make envueltos featuring other vegetables such as pacaya (palm tree blossoms) or cauliflower.
But this recipe for tortitas de ejotes is a lower calorie option as the beans are not fried in as much oil and they’re also easier to make as you don’t have to try to keep the green bean bundles together.
Nutritional Content of Fresh Green Beans
There’s another great reason to add green bean recipes to your list of dishes to make. Fresh green beans are a power food. They’re an excellent source of Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Copper as well as dietary fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Folate and Manganese.
Combined with eggs for protein, this makes tortitas de ejote a very nutritional vegetarian dish to start your day off with. If you chop the green beans in advance and store them in the refrigerator, it’s easy to whip up a batch of these green bean omelettes in the morning for a healthy breakfast that has a bursting-with-freshness taste to start your day off right.
How to Make Guatemalan Tortitas de Ejotes – Fresh Green Bean Fritters
After removing the ends of the green beans, place them in batches within a food processor or chop finely by hand.
I’m a big fan of the Braun MQ777 Multiquick 7 Hand Blender, Black as it cleans easily, is compact and trouble- free to use and, best of all, chops vegetables finely without crushing them.
Once you’ve chopped the green beans, par boil them in salted water for three minutes, drain and plunge into icy water to stop the cooking process. Drain thoroughly.
Chop the onions finely and mix with the green beans.
Prepare your batter, beating the egg whites until stiff and then folding the beaten egg whites to the beaten yolks.
Mix the salt, pepper and flour and then combine with the beaten eggs.
Gently fold the green bean onion mixture into the eggs.
Add oil to a non-stick frying pan or griddle. I love the Delonghi Livenza All-Day Grill as it has a very large grilling area so you can cook very large batches of fritters. It’s also easy to set up and clean.
But you can use any sturdy frying pan.
Drop 1/4 cup of green bean batter onto the griddle to fry each of the tortitas de ejotes until browned.
The key to making them crispy is to try not to pack too many green bean pancakes into the pan or onto the griddle at the same time.
How to Serve Tortitas de Ejotes
While I love tortitas de ejotes for breakfast, in Guatemala they are most popular for lunch or dinner.
They are traditionally served with fresh tomato salsa, tortillas de maize, black beans and a salty cheese such as queso de Zacapa from Guatemala.
You can substitute any crumbly white cheese such as Greek feta or Mexican cotija or a green tomatillo salsa verde such as this quick and easy recipe for salsa verde from The Mexykan.
Another way to enjoy this recipe for fresh green beans is to place a trio of tortitas de ejote inside a crusty bun, slathered with mayonnaise or creamy avocado dressing and enjoy it as a vegetarian sandwich.
An easy recipe for green bean fritters that's perfect for breakfast or a light lunch. You can also serve tortitas de ejotes inside a crusty French roll slathered with mayonnaise or avocado
- 5 cups fresh green beans minced
- 1/2 cup onion minced
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs, separated
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons white flour
- Boil the green beans in water until tender but still crisp
- Plunge the green beans into cold water to chill. Drain the beans and allow to cool
- Mix the onion, salt and green beans together
- Prepare batter by beating egg yolks until creamy. Beat egg whites separately until stiff and then fold egg white into yolks together with salt and flour
- Mix the green beans and batter together, stirring lightly
Drop by large spoonful (1/4 cup) in a frying pan with oil and shape into patties
- Fry in oil for 2-3 minutes per side until browned. Turn and cook other side
Serve topped with chirmol (simple tomato and onion sauce) or any other salsa. I like red pepper salsa as it's got a bit of spice.
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Enjoy This Post? You Might Also Like these Easy Guatemalan Recipes:
Tortitas de Berro: An Easy Guatemalan Recipe for Watercress Omelettes
Jocon de Pollo: Chicken in Tomatillo Sauce
Recipe for Pulique: A Guatemalan Stewed Chicken
Salpicon, Guatemalan shredded beef and mint salad
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Bean fritters are my all time favorite. Can’t wait to try this one!
I have never head bean fritters before! What a tasty looking recipe; I will be giving this a try this weekend!