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Making sourdough bread at home seems to be reaching an all-time high these days.

But the real question is, what do you do with leftover starter once you’ve taken what you need for your next loaf?

There are lots of sourdough discard recipes out there for things you can do with leftover starter. Everything from pancakes to waffles to banana bread.

But with all of these recipes, you end up adding more precious flour to the point where you end up asking yourself “did I really need the sourdough starter in order to make these pancakes or could I have simply just made pancakes?”

The starter lends a nice tangy flour, but shouldn’t there be a way to use that leftover starter without having to make an entire batch of pancakes?

Yes, and there is. Introducing: Fried Sourdough Starter.

We have recently discovered that you can turn your leftover sourdough starter into FRIED BREAD!

Honestly, it is one of the best inventions to come out of the kitchen recently.

All you need is a hot cast iron skillet, some olive oil (or ghee, or coconut oil), and your sourdough starter discard.

Fried Sourdough Starter Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup sourdough starter. We simply use all the remaining starter we have after we use what we need for a new loaf of bread.
Don’t have two weeks to get a sourdough starter going from scratch? It is really easy to buy one online and get going from there. Here is the one I recommend.
1/4 cup olive oil, ghee or coconut oil (don’t skimp on the quantity here - it’s fried bread, not lightly oiled bread)
1 teaspoon flaky sea salt (here is the type I use)
(Optional) Olives, chopped jalapeños, sesame seeds, caramelized onions or chives (these have been our go-to add-ons, but the possibilities are endless)

Instructions

Heat up a nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Here is the nonstick skillet I recommend. Pour in the olive oil and sprinkle in some salt. This will create a tasty layer for the fried bread to soak in.
Then pour in your leftover starter. Smoosh down a bit to turn it into a round disk.

Toss in some olives, chopped jalapeños, or anything else you fancy.
Fry in the olive oil for a couple mins to get it nice and golden brown.
Then flip over like a pancake, press down on it slightly with a spatula and fry for a couple mins on the second side.
And then flip again. Continue this process until you get it nice and golden brown on both sides. This should ensure it gets crispy on the outside and cooked through in the middle.