"If you want zucchini" says Garrison Keillor, in his drawling reminiscence of Lake Wobegon, the quintessential Midwest town too real to be real, "just go to church on Sunday. You'll have all you can handle." People in garden-minded towns should lock their car doors, this time of year, or else they may find a large, moist sack of green monsters on their back seat. Do you have a sack of zucchini sitting on the front seat of your car, or on your kitchen counter? Want some fresh ideas?
Maybe you've made zucchini bread, but you're stumped on what to do with the rest of it. What about baking it stuffed with olives, tomatoes, and mozzarella? Or making a French-style savory breakfast cake? What about a hearty chickpea salad with shredded zucchini, mint, and feta? There's zucchini "butter" and a spread with zucchini and yogurt. There's so much zucchini here, you'll feel just fine leaving your doors unlocked in the church parking lot. Zucchini? Bring it on!
Want more from Garrison Keillor on the summer rhythms of small-town life? Check out this episode from 2008:
• Endless Summer, September 6 2008
But first, just in case you haven't had your zucchini bread fix yet, and you really just want that perfect recipe... here you go!
And now on to the rest — fresh, summery zucchini recipes.
ZUCCHINI SALADS
• 1 Chickpea, Barley and Zucchini Ribbon Salad with Mint and Feta
• 2 Corn and Zucchini Salad with Chives
• 3 Grilled Zucchini and Grape Tomato Salad
• 4 Raw Zucchini Ribbons with Parmesan
BAKED ZUCCHINI
• 5 Eight-Ball Zucchini With Eggs Baked Inside
• 6 Zucchini Stuffed with Sausage, Mushrooms & Sage
• 7 Zucchini Boats with Mozzarella and Olives
ZUCCHINI SPREADS & TOPPINGS
• 8 Super Easy and Delicious Zucchini Butter
• 9 Crostini with Zucchini Squash and Feta
• 10 Zucchini, Mint and Yogurt Spread
SOUP, FRITTERS, & MORE
• 11 Zucchini Garlic Soup
• 12 Healthier Zucchini & Carrot Stuffed Fritters
• 13 Zucchini-Potato Frittata
ZUCCHINI CAKES
• 14 Zucchini and Olive Breakfast Cake, French-Style
• 15 Harvest Cake with Goat Cheese Frosting
What are your favorite ways to get out of the zucchini bread rut and enjoy summer's most delicious monster?
(Images: See linked recipes for full image credits)
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Thank you! This is exactly what the gardener ordered!
We (very happily) had a surplus of zucchini... before the squash vine borers decimated our crop. My hands-down favorite recipe from the season was zucchini enchiladas - covered in zucchini salsa verde. Yum! Here's the recipe for zucchini salsa: http://sustainablediet.blogspot.com/2012/05/zucchini-salsa.html
And here's the recipe for the enchiladas: http://sustainablediet.blogspot.com/2012/05/zucchini-enchiladas-verdes.html
Enjoy!
Perfect-I have tons of zucchini right now and have had fun looking for new ways to use it!
Love these, thank you! Lebanese style is also delicious, using green or yellow summer squash stuffed with rice and ground beef or lamb and cooked in a tomato sauce. It's "coosa," excellent topped with a dollop of labne (thickened yogurt):
http://www.maureenabood.com/2011/07/27/are-you-a-coosa/
I made a delicious chocolate zucchini bundt cake a few weekends ago, when I just couldn't stomach more zucchini in my dinner... it was delicious!
mollie katzen has a great zucchini pancakes (w/ feta cheese) recipe in the moosewood cookbook that I really love!
I have so many zucchini recipes! I recently made zucchini corn bread, with cinnamon and cayenne, and that was easy and a big hit!
I've made zucchini fritters with lemon, goat cheese and pine nuts, zucchini kofta, zucchini, raisin and walnut pastries, grated beet & zucchini tacos with chipotle and kidney beans (very pretty)!, Zucchini with coconut and cashew, I could go on and on. Should be able to find them all here.
No one ever gives ME zucchini :( I love it this time of year though, right now eating my favorite: cracker-thin whole wheat pizza crust smeared with tomato paste and heaped with fresh rosemary, basil and paper thin sliced zucchini (and a sprinkle of mozzarella). It really makes use of the sweetness, balancing out the acidity of the tomato paste.
That zucchini butter is SO good.
OH I miss living in Oklahoma where the zucchini is abundant. In Arizona, not only is it not free, it's expensive!
Try the flourless zucchini brownies from here:
http://www.delightedmomma.com/2012/05/flourless-zucchini-brownies.html - Add a quarter cup of cocoa though too.
Doesn't highlight zucchini because you can't even taste it but such a good way to use up extra from the CSA basket!
haha, i was just about to say the same thing--flourless zucchini brownies from delighted mama are great! i made some last night.
"a large, moist sack of green monsters"
I made these Zucchini Tots last night (http://www.skinnytaste.com/2012/07/zucchini-tots.html) and we really liked them. When I told my boyfriend we were having zucchini, he made a face, but he loved these and asked if he could have the leftovers in his lunch today.
He's a diabetic and I'm trying to get him to happily eat lots of veg, so these are the moments I live for. :)
I'm not growing zucchini this year, but I think I may try next year. I love them. There is another good Moosewood recipe--Zucchini-crusted pizza. I grate them into lots of things that I make in the summer. Last night I grated them into spaghetti sauce. Grated, they cook (and disappear) very quickly.
Love the new ideas! I can never get enough zuchini though so I don't know what surplus means. It has to be one of my all time favorite veggies.
Here's my recipe for using the baseball bat size zucchini:
Zucchini Unlimited
2 large zucchini, or 2 qt, or over 3 lbs total
2/3 C lemon juice
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 C sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
Peel and slice open zucchini. Remove seeds. Quarter or cut as you would apple slices for apple pie. Cover and cook in lemon juice until slices are tender. Add the other ingredients and simmer a few minutes. Marinate in refrigerator overnight. Use in any apple recipe or freeze at this point.
I made this often when my kids were at home. They were always a little suspect, but gobbled it up.
Lol, I once saw a bumper sticker at a famers' market that said simply "NO ZUKES" - they really are everywhere you look! Always love seeing new uses for them, and these are great!
I have been using them as noodles (using a spiral slicer) in place of pasta. Pretty tasty!!
Wow, i have seen a few new ways here to use zucchini in cooking, but i haven't seen one of the best : meat stuffed zucchini! i don't think i should write down the recipe, there are a lots of recipes on google about MEAT STUFF ZUCCHINI. Trust me, it is going to be great!