Easy Carrot Spinach Croquettes

With a crunchy fried coating on the outside, these Easy Carrot Spinach Croquettes are perfectly seasoned and tender on the inside – a delicious appetizer for fall gatherings!

It’s hard not to love a crispy fried ball of veggies! That is why, I think, these easy carrot spinach croquettes are always a hit with friends and family.

Golden and crispy on the outside and stuffed with a deliciously spiced blend of potatoes, carrots, and spinach, these croquettes tend to disappear fast when left on the dinner table or served as a snack/appetizer.

What are the ingredients needed to make these carrot spinach croquettes?

You will need the following ingredients: (ingredients listed for frying and baking options)

1. Cooked potatoes
2. Yellow onion
3. Fresh garlic
4. Fresh ginger
5. Fresh (or frozen) spinach
6. Fresh cilantro
7. Carrot
8. Red chili hot sauce like El Yucateco® Red Chile Habanero

For coating:

1. Egg
2. Salt
   • If baking:
     • Ground almonds
     • Cooking Oil Spray
     • Paprika
   • If frying:
     • Canola oil for frying
     • Breadcrumbs

How do you make these croquettes?

These croquettes are so easy to make. It’s a simple case of cook a potato ~ unless you have a cooked potato on hand. Mash potatoes with other veggies and spices. Form into balls. Coat and either bake or fry!

• If you don’t have a boiled or baked potato on hand, you can boil a potato for 40–45 minutes or bake it at 40-45 minutes (the time to cook depends on the size of the potato).
• Then, add the cooked potato to a bowl and mash up
• Add in the onions, garlic, ginger, spinach, carrots, cilantro, pinch salt, 3 TBSP of hot sauce or 2 tbsp of El Yucateco® Red Chile Habanero and 1 tbsp El Yucateco® XXX Hot Kutbil-ik and mix well.
• Then, using both hands, form the mixture into balls and set aside.
• Meanwhile, prep the egg by mixing in some hot sauce or El Yucateco® Red Chile Habanero into the egg and beat well.  
• Set the breadcrumbs out as well.
• Dunk the croquettes in the egg mix and then the breadcrumbs and set aside.
• Heat the oil and when hot, drop in the croquettes, one to two at a time (do this carefully with a slotted spoon appropriate for frying, so the hot oil does not splash on you) and fry for about 4-5 minutes – remember that different stoves have different heat levels so timing may differ.
• If you are baking these croquettes, then after dipping croquettes in egg, dip them in spiced almond mixture instead of breadcrumbs and set aside.
• Then bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or till golden and crispy.

A little back story on these croquettes…

Today was the day I was supposed to have moved.

Yet, here I am – my life in boxes.

My daughter says I am being way too dramatic with that sentence – buuuuttt… hey now, who’s the one with the blog eh?!

Without boring y’all with too much moving mumbo-jumbo, I’ll just say the next time I think of doing the buying and simultaneously selling thing, I’ve told my daughter to throw some frozen croquettes at me!

Y’all, I used to think I was a patient person, but all this waiting on ever-changing closing dates and updates that cannot be accessed online is driving me to reconsider that notion!

Thank goodness there are a gazillion parks with some killer hiking trails near us.

With everything in boxes, hiking has become such a welcome outlet for my daughter and I while we wait on closing attorneys to do their thing.

My daughter pointed out that hiking these trails recently has become more than just an outlet for her as she has grown up around (and, on) most of them.

So, when I knew we were heading to one of our favorite trails the other evening (a lesser known trail that meanders below a hwy, borders a busy mall and has a mini waterfall-of-sorts by it) I figured I’d whip up some of her favorite treats to enjoy afterwards.

As she loves fried vegetarian croquettes, I used the few pots and bowls I hadn’t packed up to whip up these Easy Carrot Spinach Croquettes with El Yucateco® Red Chile Habanero and El Yucateco® XXX Hot Kutbil-ik adding so much flavor to them!

If you take a glance at the recipe ingredients, you will see that there are no other spices flavoring these delicious croquettes other than El Yucateco®!

By the way, did y’all know that El Yucateco® is the #1 consumer’s choice.

Convenient, fun, and flavorful, it is a brand that fits perfectly into people’s everyday adventures!

El Yucateco®’s ingredients come from Field to Bottle. It includes no artificial colors, but the same great taste that has made it the King of Flavor since 1968.

As we usually do when we head out on hikes (or to the movies), we smuggled some bottles of El Yucateco® Red Chile Habanero, El Yucateco® Green Chile Habanero and El Yucateco® XXX Hot Kutbil-ik to enjoy with these Carrot Spinach Croquettes.

I usually pick up bottles of my favorite flavors of El Yucateco® at Kroger or Publix, but they are available at most retail stores nationwide.

This time, I fried the croquettes, but please feel free to coat them in a roughly ground and spiced almond mixture and bake them instead.

How do you store these croquettes?

Make a batch of these croquettes and store them in an airtight container in your fridge. They should be good for up to 7–10 days.

However, if you don’t fry or bake these. Simply coat them in breadcrumbs or ground almonds, you can wrap them and store them in your freezer for up to a month. Then, when you want to make them, remove from the freezer. Thaw them out at room temperature for an hour or two. And fry or bake them until crisp.

How do you reheat these croquettes?

You can reheat in these croquettes in a toaster oven or air fryer for 3–5 minutes and enjoy a couple of these croquettes as a snack or with a meal, during the week.

If you love croquettes, here are a few of our favs!

 

Thank you for sharing!