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This easy Guatemalan recipe for tortitas de ejotes is made with fresh green beans and eggs. These green bean fritters work perfectly for an appetizer, nutritious breakfast or light lunch.
In spring — when the weather is beginning to hint at warmer weather — I crave veggies.
That means it’s a perfect time to make tortitas de ejotes, a traditional Guatemalan recipe featuring fresh green beans in an easy fritter batter.
This easy Guatemalan dish is also popular in Mexico where fresh green beans are available year-round.
Serve these delicious vegetarian, low-carb green bean fritters with salsa for dipping. Or tuck them inside a crusty French roll with mayonnaise, slivers of red onion, and a handful of fresh lettuce.
If you enjoy these veggie fritters with green beans, I think you’re going to love these tortitas de berro made with fresh watercress.
Jump to:
What are Tortitas de Ejotes?
They are a Guatemalan recipe for green bean patties or fritters. They’re quite similar to another popular Guatemalan dish, envueltos de ejotes, which are whole fresh green beans wrapped in a light batter.
My mother-in-law makes envueltos featuring other vegetables such as pacaya (palm tree blossoms) or cauliflower.
This recipe is a lower-calorie option as the beans are not fried in much oil. They’re also easier to make as you don’t have to try to keep the green bean bundles together.
Why We Love this Guatemalan Food Recipe
- The perfect way to use up extra green beans from your garden or bought too many at the store!
- So easy to make! This very easy Guatemalan recipe is virtually foolproof!
- These vegetable fritters are so delicious you’ll literally see bushels of green beans disappearing from your table.
- A great way to cook green beans that are a bit stringy, they’ll come out tender in this recipe.
- You can easily scale this recipe up or down depending on the number of green beans you have.
- A versatile dish for serving. Tortitas de ejotes make a bright side dish for a springtime meal. But this dish aslo works just as well served as an appetizer or breakfast.
Ingredients
This recipe for ejotes fritters requires simple, easy-to-find, whole ingredients. This dish contains no artificial additives or flavours.
Here’s what you need:
- Green Beans: Since you’ll be chopping the green beans, you can use less-than-perfect beans in this recipe. There’s no need to splurge on expensive French green beans – the long slender (and expensive) variety.
⭐️ TOP TIP: While you can use curly, bent, or even broken green beans to get delicious results, avoid buying green beans with large bumps as that means they have large seeds inside and those can be tough.
- Onion: Chopped up with the green beans to add flavor. I prefer making this ejotes recipe with yellow onion.
- Vegetable oil: We will be using this for frying up the fritters. Use one that’s neutral in flavor and good for frying.
- Eggs: Make the fritter batter cook up light and fluffy around the green beans.
White flour: Gives the fritters a bit more structure so they stay together.
How to Make Tortitas de Ejotes
These easy vegetable fritters with green beans are actually quite easy to prepare.
Here’s an overview of the steps involved. Be sure to check the recipe card for all the details.
- Prep the green beans. Remove the ends of the green beans, place them in batches in a food processor, or chop them finely by hand.
Once chopped, parboil the green beans in salted water for three minutes. Drain and then plunge into icy water to stop the cooking process. Drain them thoroughly and dry them on a paper or kitchen towel.
Chop the onions finely and mix them with the green beans.
⭐️ Equipment Tip: I’m a big fan of the Braun MQ777 Multiquick 7 Hand Blender as it cleans easily, is compact, and is trouble-free to use. Best of all, it chops vegetables finely without crushing them.
- Prepare your batter, beating the egg whites until stiff and then folding the beaten egg whites into the beaten yolks.
- Mix the salt, pepper, and flour and then combine with the beaten eggs.
- Gently fold the green bean and onion mixture into the eggs.
- Add oil to a non-stick frying pan or griddle and heat. Drop a one-quarter cup of green bean batter onto the griddle to fry each of the green bean tortitas until browned.
⭐️ Equipment Tip: 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.
How to Store
Green bean fritters are best enjoyed fresh! But if you do have some leftovers, store them in the fridge for up to five days.
Can I make these ahead of time? Not completely but if you chop the green beans in advance and store them in the refrigerator overnight, it’s easy to whip up a batch of these green bean omelettes in the morning for a healthy breakfast.
How to Serve Green Bean Fritters
While I love tortitas de ejotes for breakfast, in Guatemala they are most popular for lunch or dinner.
They’re traditionally served with fresh tomato salsa such as our freezer salsa or Guatemalan chirmol, tortillas de maize, 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.
For a hearty lunch enjoy these nutritious bites with a side of Guatemalan black beans and rice.
Swap the tomato salsa for a salsa verde from The Mexykan.
To make a popular street food at home, tuck some green bean patties inside a crusty bun, add some mayonnaise, or a creamy avocado dressing, and enjoy it as a vegetarian sandwich.
Try these mini green bean omelettes with mango black bean salsa for brunch!
Pair them with a popular traditional Guatemalan drink such as atole de elote (a corn-based beverage), hot chocolate or a licuado (fruit smoothie).
Expert Tips
- 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.
- Serve up these fritters for breakfast or a light lunch! Be sure to check out our serving ideas for inspiration!
- For the best flavor, serve immediately while they’re still hot!
- Using a food processor to chop the green beans makes this recipe go together much quicker.
- If you have leftover green beans, use them up in Ensalada Rusa Guatemalteca, a Guatemalan-style Russian Salad featuring potatoes and veggies in a light aioli.
FAQs
Combining green beans with eggs for protein makes these fritters very nutritious. Fresh green beans are a power food! According to Food Data Central, they’re an excellent source of Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, and Copper. They’re also low in calories and high in dietary fiber. Even though these are fried, we use minimal oil to keep them low in fat.
Yes, you can! Substitute equal parts of frozen green beans. If you’re using frozen green beans, cook them according to the package instructions, drain, plunge them into cold water, and drain again
More Delicious Breakfast Recipes
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟rating in the recipe card below & a comment further down if you REALLY like it. Thanks!
Tortitas de Ejotes: Guatemalan Green Bean Fritters
Ingredients
- 5 cups fresh green beans minced
- ½ cup onion minced
- salt and pepper to taste
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
Batter
- 4 large eggs, separated
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons white flour
Instructions
- 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.
Notes
- 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.
- Serve up green bean fritters for breakfast or a light lunch! Be sure to check out our serving ideas for inspiration!
- For the best flavor, serve immediately while they’re still hot!
- Using a food processor to chop the green beans makes this recipe go together much quicker.
Nutrition
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Dividing her time between Canada, Guatemala and Mexico (or the nearest tropical beach), Michele Peterson is the founder of A Taste for Travel. Her award-winning travel and food writing has appeared in Lonely Planet’s cookbook Mexico: From the Source, National Geographic Traveler, Fodor’s and 100+ other publications.
Read more about Michele Peterson.
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Cathy Sweeney
Green beans are a favorite of mine and having them in fritters would be extra nice. Love this recipe and must try it. I can almost smell the freshness of the market and your mother-in-laws kitchen.
Nancy Thompson
I love this! I have a cauliflower from the farmer’s market that I was looking for a new recipe for. I think I’ll give it a try this evening. Yum-o! Thanks for the inspiration.
Linda ~ Journey Jottings
Your photos are so evocative of the region – It rouses my curiosity for both Central America and the cuisine 🙂
Marilyn Jones
I really enjoyed reading about the way your mother-in-law taught you this tasty way to prepare vegetables! Great article!
Lesley Peterson
Wonderful photos! These green bean fritters look do-able and tasty! I’ll be printing this and trying. Thanks for posting.
Colleen Friesen
Wow and wow. I like the you have el chapin aka jefe, on chop duty. Your mother-in-law has the most gorgeous eyes. I’d like to put in my request for this dish next time we’re together…wherever that may be!
Carole Terwilliger Meyers
Sounds yummy! I especially like your market photo.
Patti
Yum! You had me at green beans!
Neva @ Retire for the Fun of it
Green beans are so versatile and tasty fresh from the garden. I printed this recipe to amaze my friends some time soon.
Donna Janke
I love green beans fresh from the garden. This recipe sounds wonderful. I will try it.
noel
What an excellent recipe, I’ll have to try it. Your market photos are gorgeous.
Betsy Wuebker
Yum! Nothing better than el esposo en la cocina! These little fritters look delicious! Good way to take advantage of fresh veggies from the garden or farmers’ market.
Irene S. Levine
What an appealing dish that you’ve made look incredibly simple! The salsa looks great, too!
Suzanne Fluhr
The photos accompanying your background and recipe are very evocative. I’ll know to try these if I ever visit Guatemala, but I’ll probably not want to fry green beans myself as a calorie watching thing. It’s also unlikely that anyone in my household will want to help with the chopping. 😉
esperanza
What a great way to serve green beans. Will definitely try soon. I suppose it will work as well with Zucchini? Hope so.
Wandering Carol
The photos look fabulous and I hope you decide to cook this for me one day as I will never do it for myself. But I’m sure plenty of others will try the recipe. Yum.