Put your cooking skills to the test with these delicious pea and feta croquettes. Filled with a smooth bechamel sauce, these can be tricky to put together, but are certainly worth the effort.

Valentine’s might be over, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop treating your parter (or yourself!)

If you’re looking to treat yourself, your friends or your partner to a fancy meal, this is the starter to choose: pea and feta croquettes, served with a sexy mustard and garlic mayonaise.

I’d never made these before, but they tasted so incredible that I knew that they had to feature on the blog. The soft filling, the crunchy coating, the smooth mayo and the fresh rocket all come together to make a perfect, vegetarian starter!

I’m going to be honest, though. This recipe isn’t ‘easy’. Although the filling is incredibly easy to make and so is the mayo, bringing everything together is really messy, and if you’re not used to deep frying this recipe can be a bit daunting.

I’ve tried to write this recipe as simply as possible, and, as long as you’ve got some patience, this recipe really is worth it. I hope you enjoy!

Pea and feta croquettes recipe

Preperation time: 2 hours (most of this is cooling time)

Cooking time: 15 mins (deep frying)

Servings: makes 8-12 croquettes

Ingredients

• 50g butter
• 60g plain flour
• 1 tsp cornflour
• Whole milk
• 1/2 white onion, very finely chopped
• 100g peas, defrosted
• 1/2 block of feta, finely crumbled
• Salt and pepper

For the crust

• 2 pieces of bread
• Plain flour
• 1 egg, beaten
• Oil for deep frying

How to make pea & feta croquettes

1. Begin by making the bechamel filling. Over a medium heat, add the butter and onion to the pan. Cook the onion for 5 minutes until it’s starting to brown. Once ready, quickly add the plain flour and cornflour to the pan. Stir quickly with a whisk for about 5 minutes to cook the flour.
2. Once you’ve cooked out your flour, slowly start adding milk to the pan, little by little, mixing all the time until you have a smooth sauce. Then, cook this sauce down in the pan for around 10-15 minutes.
3. Once the sauce is thick and smooth, place in a and leave to cool. If you want to speed up this process, put a baking tray in the freezer for five minutes, then spread your bechamel sauce onto the tray and place back into the freezer for 5-10 minutes until cool.
4. While the bechamel is cooking, defrost your peas by running boiling water over them. Next, place them in a bowl and lightly crush them. Crumble the feta and leave to one side.
5. Once the bechamel has cooled, place into the bowl with the peas. Add the crumbled feta, salt and pepper to taste and stir well. Leave the mix to cool for at least an hour.
6. While cooling, make the breadcrumbs (you can also buy ready-made breadcrumbs at the superrmarket to make this easier). Quickly blitz up two pieces of bread in a blender till you’re left with fine breadcrumbs. Place on a baking tray and cook in a low oven (about 120 degrees c) till they are starting to crisp up (but be careful not to burn!). Once ready, place on a plate.
7. Next to your breadcrumbs, add two more plates. On one, add a covering of plain flour and on the other add a beaten egg.
8. Remove your mixture from the fridge. This is the messy bit! Carefully roll the mixture into balls (I made 6 massive ones but I think they’d be better as 10-12 smaller ones). Once you’ve rolled one into a ball, coat it in the flour, then dip into the egg mixture and finally cover it in the breadcrumbs you made.
9. Once you’ve created the balls, place them on a baking tray covered with greaseproof paper and chill for an hour. If you want these to cool faster, put them in the freezer till they are cold and slightly hard.
10. When you’re ready to eat, heat a small pan of oil. You want the oil to be high enought so that, when you put your croquettes in the oil, they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
11. Let your oil heat up. To check if it’s hot enough, pop a little breadcrumb into the oil. If if bubbles and boils, the oil is ready.
12. Carefully place your croquettes in the hot oil. Only put a few in the time, don’t let them become too crowded! If you’ve made gigantic ones like me, cook them one at a time.
13. Cook your croquettes in the oil till they are lovely golden-brown. Using a slotted spoon, carefully lift the croquettes out and place on a piece of kitchen roll. Repeat until all of your croquettes are cooked.
14. Serve with mustard mayo (recipe below) or a light salad dressing and fresh, wild rocket.

Homemade mustard and garlic mayo recipe

Mustard mayo recipe

• 1 egg, cold
• 1 tsp dijon or english mustard
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 garlic clove, minced finely
• 240ml vegetable oil
• Salt and pepper

With a stick blender:

1. Add the egg to a jar or a cylindrical jug that just fits your stick blender in. Add the other ingredients and slowly pour all of the oil on top. Slowly place your stick blender to the bottom of the jar so that it hits the egg. Begin blending, and don’t move the blender while you do this. Only when the oil begins emulsifying with the egg can you start to tilt the head to get all of the oil mixed.
2. Once the mayo is thick, give it a taste and adjust to add more salt, pepper or mustard to taste.

If you want something a little lighter than mayonaise, these croquettes would also work really well with a quick salad vinagrette.

Tips:

If you want another vegetarian crowd pleaser, why not try my Hot honey halloumi? Or, if you prefer vegan feasts, why not try my Vegan beer-battered cauliflower tacos, Spiced vegan lentils with Indian cucumber salad, Caramelised Onion Focaccia or Vegan cauliflower soup with garlic croutons.