It's safe to say that the phrase "there's always more where that came from" was invented specifically for summer zucchini. Starting late-June, the zucchini starts rolling in from gardens and farm stands, and it won't stop until first frost (if then!). Are you ready for the zucchini season?
Zucchini is a vegetable with a gentle nature. Its dark green skin may seem intimidating, but that's only to protect its creamy, mild-flavored interior. The entire squash is edible — barring its tough stem, but including its bright orange flower. Zucchinis can be eaten raw, grilled, roasted, sautéed in butter, deep-fried, stuffed, grated for baking, juiced for smoothies, and almost any other cooking application your imagination can invent.
These squashes are best when they are young and slender. Pick ones that are glossy-skinned and unblemished, and that feel very rigid. If the zucchini feels at all squishy or flabby, put it back. These zucchini will keep in a refrigerator drawer for about a week before starting to lose their firm texture.
When it comes to cooking with zucchini, you can go one of two ways: keep it simple to celebrate its mild sweet flavor or use it as a backdrop for whatever spicy, strongly-flavored ingredients you can find. A basic salad of raw zucchini ribbons tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, and sea salt hits the spot on a hot night. A rich ratatouille or grilled zucchini skewers dusted with spice mix are fantastic when we're in the mood for more flavor.
Here are some of our favorite zucchini recipes:
• Healthier Zucchini and Carrot Fritters
• Zucchini and Garlic Soup
• Zucchini Bread
• Goat Cheese Tart with Roasted Eggplant, Zucchini, and Onions
• Zucchini Stuffed with Sausage, Mushrooms, and Sage
• Squash Ribbon Salad
What are your tried and true zucchini recipes?
Related: You Won't Miss the Meat: 10 Vegetarian Barbecue Recipes
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Smitten kitchen zucchini fritters! Just made them last night again. Since I discovered he recipe a couple months ago I make them a few times a month. I also love to add a ton of shredded zucchini to marinara sauce for pasta. I sauté it a little with salt pepper and chili flake and add a little sauce so it's just like a tomatoey zucchini. Yum. Its my favorite veg.
I'm not a fan of raw zucchini -- its a bit astringent, and doesn't have the crispness of say cucumbers. I was also victimized as a child by overgrowth of zucchini, and my mother found hundreds of ways to use them, many of which I'd prefer never to eat again (baseball-bat sized specimens stuffed with ground beef and more zucchini, for instance). It also turns to mush in stir-fries, I don't ever want to see it in my Kung Pao Chicken (whose vegetable quotient is supposed to be solely scallions, but I'll accept onions and bell peppers).
However, there are a number of great applications for zukes:
1) Thin-sliced, sauteed with lots of garlic, it gets silky and sweet
2) Again, thin-sliced, atop a pizza (with garlic). It shouldn't work, but it does.
3) Slice the long way (yes, still thin), grill briefly, and serve with hummos, baba ganouj or skordalia
Love zucchini!
One delicious simple way I've made it lately, that really lets it shine, is lightly sauteed with nicoise olives, herbs, and almonds.
Also good in a summer tart.
A galette with red beans and pumpkinseeds.
A soup with quinoa, chickpeas and spinach, flavored with thyme, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Really delicious and easy!
I have a million others, but I'd better stop now!
I planted zucchini for the first time this year, they are still pretty small so hopefully next week I can start eating them! So easy to grow too, the tiny plant I bought for $1 shot up like a weed.
Zucchinis have been prolific from my CSA for the last month. I've done zucchini muffins, sliced and sauteed with onions and butter, in a veggie hash with green tomatoes and onion topped with an egg...the list goes on. I think next up is some zucchini butter to slather on homemade bread.
My favorite zucchini recipe is (the strangely named), "cheesy vegetarian stir fry". It's not what I would normally call a stir fry, but it sure is delicious. Sauté one onion (diced) with a few cloves of garlic (also diced), then add two medium zucchinis (diced) and sauté until the zucchini is "crisp tender". Add one package of frozen artichoke hearts (defrosted) and mix in 1 cup of tomato sauce. Sprinkle grated Jarlsberg cheese on top, let it melt, then serve over spaghetti. We're having it for dinner tonight!
Last year, I had a glut of zucchini, even without growing them myself (if you know anybody who's growing it, get ready for the onslaught). I made several loaves of zucchini bread and froze them and that sure was a nice treat in the middle of winter. I also made zucchini butter and fritters. Zucchini is sort of the Amazing Disappearing Vegetable; you can grate it or chop it fine and it just seems to disappear into dishes, so I tend to throw it into everything I cook.
I made up a zucchini-filled recipe for Zucchini and Black Bean Enchiladas with Zucchini Salsa Verde. It's delicious—and the zucchini salsa cooks very well. Nobody will guess it's not made from tomatillos!
Lots of zucchini bread, brownies, and more in our kitchen this summer—straight from the garden!
I prepare zucchini very simply: cut lengthwise into quarters, halve the matchsticks. Heat olive oil and a bit of garlic in a skillet over high flame. Add zucchini sticks, cut side down. Don't touch -- let them brown on one side, then agitate and brown on second side. Add spritz of lemon juice and a sprinkling of Italian seasoning. The entire cooking process should take maybe three minutes. The zucchini should still be mostly crunchy at the end. Delicious.
Sauté sliced onion, zucchini, tomato and green chile (roasted/peeled hatch preferred). Pour into a casserole dish, top liberally with monterrey or colby jack cheese and broil until cheese is melted and bubbly.
Not terribly sophisticated, but a tasty, old family favorite.
Ahhhhhhh, yes. The zucchini onslaught has started, hasn't it? So far....Michael Symon's fritters (posted on Michael Rhulman's blog about a month ago...seasoned with fresh mint and dill, feta cheese and lemon zest), Ina Garten's zucchini fritters (far inferior to Symon's), raw as a crudite, dipped in bleu cheese dressing, and in pasta (julienned and sauteed with garlic & onion in a little EVOO, seasoned with S&P and a hint of red pepper flakes, tossed with roughly chopped toasted walnuts, Parm, chiffonaded fresh basil and mint and cooked short pasta [and a splash of lemon juice and pasta water to loosen the mix], and a couple of billy-club sized specimens got stuffed with the shredded flesh, browned ground beef, sauteed onion & garlic and a splash of tomato sauce, then baked, in tomato sauce, topped with Parm). My favorites were the pasta and Symon's fritters. More are coming in my CSA share tomorrow, so we'll see what shakes out in the kitchen in the next week or so.
I love this recipe I recreated after a dinner on the Amalfi coast. It uses sauteed (or fried) zucchini coins which are then put in vinegar and mint. Perfect for summer!