Making Jalepeno Corn Fritters With Vegan Feta By Spread’em

I had written a whole post about Spread’em cheese and then, without thinking, I deleted it! And then I deleted the trash on my website not knowing my post was in there. It’s the worst feeling to spend a ton of time on a post and then somehow delete it and not be able to recover it. So, instead of writing a whole new post about Spread’em cheese, I’m just going to share the recipes I try using their cheeses.

One of the cheeses that I got from Spread’em is their Marinated Feta with Garlic & Pink Peppercorn. It’s OK. It’s not bad, but it’s nothing like the feta I remember – crumbly and salty.

It’s nice that they have it in a marinade, but the marinade with the Spread’em feta doesn’t penetrate the cheese at all. In fact, I would say the feta has the taste and texture of their regular block cheese. It tastes like cream cheese to me. Tangy and creamy.

That said, I came across this recipe on Pinch Of Yum for a bean soup with Jalapeno Corn Fritters. It wasn’t a hard sell. I had tried making corn fritters about a week before I found this recipe, and they came out horrible. But, Pinch Of Yum used cheese in theirs, and I had been looking for something to use my Spread’em feta in, so it was something I had to try.

The Spread’em feta is in a ton of oil. And my fridge is apparently pretty cold. So that oil hardened up a bit. I had to take pieces of the cheese out and put it in paper towel to get the oil off it.

Spread'em Feta

The recipe for the Jalapeno Corn Fritters was simple.

  • 1 3/4 cups frozen corn
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup cotija cheese (I used 1/2 cup of Spread’em feta cheese)
  • minced jalapeno (to taste – one is usually more than enough)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt, and/or salt for topping

The following picture is the mixture for the Jalapeno Corn Fritters, and it doesn’t look particularly appetizing. I should probably take shots further away. However, I wanted to show that the mixture came together nicely and started to bind as it whirled through the food processor.

jalepeno corn fritters mix

They held together nicely as I rolled them into their fritter state. But it almost felt like I was making a cheeseball and not corn fritters because they were so creamy. I was worried they wouldn’t cook.

In hindsight, I probably could have added less cheese. Knowing that cotija cheese and soft creamy cheese are not the same, I should have added less.

I didn’t want to deep fry them because I often have bad results with deep frying. So, I cooked them in the air fryer at medium temperature.

It took about 20 minutes for them to look brown. They were very soft in the air fryer to start, but I was able to flip them about halfway through and they started firming up as they cooked.

The end result was a creamy corn fritter that was delicious and held up in the soup.

The soup was amazing too, however, I used a three-bean blend instead of just pinto beans. And, I didn’t have ancho chili powder, so I added some smoked salt, taco seasoning, and red chili powder, and it came out perfect. This is a soup I’m going to make for my non-vegan family right away because I know that everyone will love it.

In short, the Spread’em feta worked well in this recipe. I thought the mixture would never get hard because of the Spread’em feta cheese, but it did! And it held up in the soup.

Note About The Spread’em Feta: I didn’t manage to take off all the peppercorns, and I didn’t find those tasty in the corn fritters, but the cheese worked fine. In short, if you use the Spread’em feta in a recipe and don’t want sharp tastes of peppercorn, make sure all those things are off before you add it to your recipe.

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