If you can pronounce it, you will be able to make them too! Kolokithokeftedes (zucchini balls) is very easy, fast and something important: you won’t make your whole kitchen untidy.  I first saw it in Santorini, together with tomatokeftedes and I just loved them!!! (Keftedes means balls) I was happy to see that here in Cyprus its almost always part of a meze. This one is easier to make. Ideal for vegetarians or as side dish for meateaters.

Ingredients for about 10-12 keftedes

• 5 small Zucchini (Courgettes)
• 1 medium onion
• 1 small piece of garlic
• 1 teacup breadcrumbs
• some flour
• 2 eggs
• fresh parsley and spring onion chopped
• salt and pepper
• Slices of lemon
• Optional: feta, paprika, tomato, mint
  

Preparation

Wash the zucchini and grate it. (If you use tomato, you have to peel it and only use the flesh but not the soft part with the seeds. Use juicy but hard, ripe tomatoes.) Let it for 10 minutes then squeeze out some juice of it. Not all of it though, it needs to stay soft. Chop the onion and press the garlic the parsley and the spring onion and mix all with the eggs and a small cup of breadcrumbs. This allows excess water to drain away. Put the salt and the pepper in the mixture only just before you form the balls otherwise the balls will lose more water and with that taste. If you use feta, crumble the feta cheese into the mix and don’t use salt at all! The feta is salty enough. Don’t spend too much time with massaging the ingredients, we don’t want to create a dough, we want it to be light and fresh. Form the balls, bath them in flour and bake them in hot oil till they become gold. Serve them with lemon.