What to do With Zucchini
It is as beloved as it is cursed—the zucchini. Personally, I love this vegetable and I make sure that my garden has at least 2 zucchini plants and 2 of the yellow crookneck squash plants. We eat it most nights and my very favorite way is sliced and lightly steamed with a little butter. I could eat it that way every single day. But my family doesn’t like it as much as I do, so I have to be creative to get that squash into the meal.
I remember laughing a couple of years ago when my little brother proudly announced that they had planted two very long rows of zucchini. He didn’t understand what was so funny about that until the zucchini took off. He swore that those plants multiplied and reproduced every time he blinked. His neighbors locked their doors and their cars after about a week of free gifts from his garden.
It seems that you can never have enough recipes to use up that infamous zucchini from the garden. I have collected many recipes over the years and I definitely have some favorites. I am sure that you do too. So I am offering you a proposition, in order to share the love and create some wonderful masterpieces in the kitchen.
Leave me a comment below this post with your favorite zucchini recipe or recipes. Please include your name as you wish it to be published, so I can give proper credit where it is due. I will compile all of the submissions and create a free, downloadable recipe book for you filled with all of the zucchini masterpieces that are submitted. Now this will only work with your cooperation, so please participate! If this works like I am hoping, this will be the first of a series of recipe books that we create together, using the divine ingredients that we grow in our gardens.
Here is to many, many mouthwatering recipes for our zucchini recipe book. Since I need to have a deadline in order to compile and publish the book, let’s work on this until August 20, 2008. So submit away and let’s create something wonderful and delicious together!
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I don’t have a recipe for it, but I just love fried zucchini!
Large praise for this well written and easily understandable contribution. I take up this blog to my favorites and times will soon again by-look.
Sue,
How do you make it? Write it up–that counts!
Matti,
Welcome to Her Gardening Blog!! I hope you return here often!
In Italy there are some recipes for fried zuccini.. maybe you have to ask some Italians in your neighbourhood! My mom made them with pasta and a bit oil & garlic…
oops, not sure what happened but in the middle of my post everything disappeared. hopefully i’m not duplicating here…
this recipe is one i altered from the New Seasons website (http://www.newseasonsmarket.com/shopping/shopping.aspx?location=RECIP&sublocation=H) to use the zucchinis, yellow crookneck squash and tomatoes from our garden. i don’t eat cheese, so that’s why we brought in the tofu. i make it in the morning, pop it in the fridge and throw it in the oven that night. it’s pretty good:
black bean, tofu and squash enchiladas
olive oil, around 3 tablespoons
garlic, 2-3 cloves minced
onion, small-med yellow, chopped
a couple zucchinis, halved and sliced
a couple yellow crookneck squash, halved and sliced
black beans, 15 oz can (or make from scratch if you have the time)
tomato, medium, diced
tofu, Organic firm, 12-14 oz, squished all up and drained (so it looks like ricotta cheese)
taco seasoning, 2 Tbls, heaping
salt, 1 tsp
6-8 tortillas, flour or corn
enchilada sauce, 1 can, green or red
cilantro, 1/4 cup (optional)
shredded cheese, 1/2 cup (optional)
preheat oven to 350 degrees.
in a large skillet over medium heat, saute onions and garlic in olive oil for 5 minutes (don’t be stingy on the olive oil). drop in the zucchini and yellow crookneck and saute them till tender (another 5-10 minutes), add the taco seasoning and salt and coat everything with that. add beans, tomato, tofu and cilantro (if you are using) and saute it all up together for a minute or so. once everything is well mixed and warm, turn off the burner.
warm up your tortillas so they are floppy (microwave works well). get out a baking dish and cover the bottom with enchilada sauce. then place some of the bean/squash/tofu mixture into a tortilla (1/6 or 1/8 depending on how many tortillas you have), wrap it up and place it in the baking dish. once you have all the tortillas rolled up and in the baking dish, pour the remaining enchilada sauce and sprinkle with cheese (again if you are using).
cover and bake for 25-35 minutes (longer if it’s been in the fridge all day), then remove the cover and bake an additional 10 minutes.
enjoy!