Written by Stacey T, Contributing Writer
About this time of year, people are wondering what to do with all the zucchini that just keeps coming from gardens. Zucchini is nutritious - a great source of fiber, antioxidants, Vitamin C and many B vitamins - and it's delicious too!
But we seem to have a love/hate relationship with zucchini. It’s fun when you can start harvesting them, but then when they don’t stop, it’s easy to get a little sick of it!
In fact, there’s a running joke in my town: Don’t leave your house or car unlocked or you might return to find a bag or two of zucchini inside!
There’s lots you can do with all that zucchini. Zucchini bread is a beloved favorite. But what if you’ve made zucchini bread and still have zucchini coming out your ears?
Here’s 8 unique ways to use zucchini and give you something new to try!
1. Zucchini Avocado Salad
Adapted from the Zucchini Houdini by Brenda Stanley
2 cups cubed zucchini
1 large avocado
¼ cup coconut oil
2 Tbl lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
¼ tsp sea saltSteam zucchini for about 4 minutes or until tender. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix well and chill until serving. Serves 4.
2. Chocolate Zucchini Cake :: allrecipes.com
3. Italian Zucchini Pie :: Simplify, Live, Love
4. Gluten Free Carrot Zucchini Pancakes :: Gluten Free Food Ideas
5. Grilled Zucchini
1 zucchini, 6 to 8 inches
Olive oil
Seasonings such as black pepper, crushed red pepper, powdered garlic, Italian seasoning, basil, oregano
Sea saltWash zucchini and cut in half lengthwise. Brush pulpy side with olive oil and sprinkle with seasonings of your choice.
Place pulpy side down on hot grill and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or until tender. Do not overcook.
Image by meglet127
6. Fried Zucchini :: The Finer Things in Life
7. Roasted Eggplant & Zucchini Salsa :: Kosher on a Budget
8. Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from the Zucchini Houdini by Brenda Stanley
¾ cup coconut oil
1 cup Rapadura or raw sugar
1 egg
1 tea vanilla
2 ½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ sea salt
1 tea cinnamon
1 ½ cups grated zucchini
1 cup chocolate or carob chipsPreheat oven to 350*F. Cream together coconut oil, sugar, egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sea salt and cinnamon. Add this to the creamed mixture. Add zucchini and chocolate or carob chips. Drop from a teaspoon onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden on top. Makes about 3 dozen.
There is a declicious looking picture of some kind of fried zucchini goodness on this post, but there is no recipe along with it. Do you have the recipe for that picture?
Awesome!! and perfect timing for the expiring zucchini's in my fridge that are looking for their calling! I love the zucchini pancakes. We make carrot, sweet potato and potato pancakes to do this. Whatever we have on hand
I have some good recipes for zucchini that I've tried on my food blog, a few of them just in the last week: http://newlywedfoodadventures.blogspot.com/search/label/zucchini
:)
Here in the South with our squash bug problem (have you heard of them? I know in Minnesota they haven't) it's hard to get halfway decent production from zucchini.
Count your blessings. ;)
Grate it and freeze it for zucchini bread... or anything else.... this winter! :)
Thanks so much for including my fried zucchini. ;)
@Amy @ Finer Things, Your zucchini recipes page is sitting in an open tab on my web browser. Too many yummy looking recipes. Now if only my zucchini plant would hurry up and start producing better. It's been a total slouch this summer (so rare for summer squash!).
Chilled Zucchini Soup - (wonderful cold or hot)
4 bouillon cubes & 3 ½ c. water
8 c. sliced zucchini
1. c. chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. basil, crumbled
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. Tabasco sauce
½ c. milk
½ c. cottage cheese
Sauté zucchini and onion in butter over low. Add broth, garlic, basil, salt and Tabasco sauce. Simmer for 15 minutes or until tender. Cool. Add milk and cottage cheese. Put through blender. Chill.
• I like this soup warmed also. I use my hand help blender to blend this all together.
My Mum makes a delicious chocolate, zucchini and walnut cake (there are heaps of recipes online if you wanted to google it.) Everyone loves it, even if they don't like zucchini. We also juice it, half zucchini, half apple and carrot juice, apparently it's very detoxifying and alkalizing and you really don't taste it as it's so mild a flavour, you just taste the other flavours.
One year I sliced them really thin, rubbed the slices in olive oil and put them in my dehydrator, then sprinkled them with salt and pepper- after drying well, hey presto, crunchy zucchini chips! YUM!!
You can also preserve them by salting them (layers of zucchini slices, thin layers of salt) to draw the juices out, then rinse, pat dry and layer them with olive oil and store them in jars in the cupboard for later. Or use a simple recipe for sauerkraut and substitute grated zucchini for shredded cabbage! Increase the vitamin content, get lots of beneficial enzymes and preserve your harvest for a year or more without refrigeration!! My favourite recipe is on Sandor Katz's fermentation website :)
Thanks for the reminder to post! I just put up how to make zucchini chips - simple, and a great way to use up bunches of them!
http://eatingmyvegetables.blogspot.com/2011/08/zucchini-chips.html
I love all your recipes. Zucchini is wonderful until you're drowning in it!
Stacey, I love this post! Unfortunately, beetles devoured our zucchini this year, but I can bookmark this post for next year! I like making zucchini brownies and zucchini bread and of course sauteing it. I also like making a zucchini bacon quiche. (I haven't blogged about any of it yet, though!)
Kate at Modern Alternative Mama recently posted a recipe for chocolate zucchini cake: http://www.modernalternativemama.com/blog/2011/7/28/recipe-collection-chocolate-zucchini-cake.html
Pamela at Bleu Cloud did a series on zucchini a few weeks back: http://bleucloud.blogspot.com/2011/07/easy-recipes-zucchini-day-2-stuffed.html
So many good zucchini recipes out there! I never knew when I was a kid how versatile this veggie is!
I love to grate zucchini into our oatmeal. With raisins, cinnamon and some maple syrup it's a winner!
We love zucchini pancakes! We just grate it in just in place of apples in our recipe. The kids don't notice a thing and gobble it all up! We also made some delicious breakfast muffins once but I can't find my recipe.
What's in that last picture?? It looks delicious, almost like zucchini latkes? Mmmmmm
Mmmm! I can't wait to try that salad with avacado. My avacados will be ready to pick in a few weeks. I like to add zucchini to my fajitas. I cut it the same size as my peppers and onions and sautee it with the other veggies. Even the most staunch zucchini haters have changed their status. Oh, and my Mom used to make a pie that tasted just like apple pie but used zucchini instead. She got the last laugh on a friend who said he was NEVER eating zucchini again, but he really didn't mind as long as she handed over the second piece of pie he asked for. ;)
Thanks for the tips! While we don't have a garden (yet), I still can't seem to resist the zucchini at the farmer's market. I always seem to do the same things with it, though. I'll have to try some of these recipes this weekend!
I just want to say how jealous I am. We're in Texas and with the drought and pests my garden didn't get much of anything this year. I got one big zucchini before the borers destroyed them. The heat is so intense you have to water almost daily to keep up. Way too often for my budget. Even my succulents are suffering. :( Fortunately I can still buy it and those zucchini cakes look yummy!
@Foxmom,
I used to have problems with squash vine borers too. My grandmother taught me a trick a few years ago. She said if you plant radishes at the base of your plants the vine borers wont go to them.....I thought it was too good to be true but decided to give it a shot. Sure enough, we've gone two years in a row without my vines collapsing from borers!
NOW If I could only find such a simple solution for squash bugs!
Thanks for linking to my Italian Zucchini Pie recipe! I've been making that recipe for several years now and really enjoy it. I'm so happy to have gotten a few more great zucchinis out of my garden yesterday. Everyone that I wrestle away from the squash bugs and cucumber beetles makes me very happy... Here's another great zucchini recipe I have on my blog as well for Zucchini Chocolate Cake. The cake is moist and delish - can't taste the zucchini at all. http://www.simplifylivelove.com/2011/08/zucchini-chocolate-cake.html
Zucchini-Oatmeal Muffins, Zucchini Casserole & Zucchini Bread! I have some of the recipes on my website: http://ecomomicalme.com/recipes/
We also have zucchini coming out our ears and I found a great recipe online at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com/2009/08/chorizo-stuffed-zucchini.html
for chorizzo (Mexican sausage) stuffed zucchini. My husband loves it. My kids refuse to eat zucchini but will eat the stuffing. I have been making a double batch of these and freezing the leftover ones for when our new baby come. I have also been shredding extra zucchinis with my salad shooter and putting it in freezer bags to use for quick breads later in the fall or winter when we don't have a garden.
I make zucchini jam. Sounds weird, but you flavor it with fruit juice concentrate. I've made grape, peach & strawberry. It almost makes jam qualify as a vegetable!