Zucchini

Do you have an abundance of zucchini and/or yellow squash at your house? We did. I have successfully used up most of our current pile. What have I done with it you might ask? I have made a list for you. I’ve also included links to some of the recipes.

Eat it raw. Am I in the minority here? I really enjoy raw zucchini. When I was pregnant with Aiden, I ate it for lunch nearly every day in my last trimester {along with hummus on tortillas and kiwi}. My husband does not like raw zucchini.

Saute it. Dice it up and saute it in olive oil, salt, and pepper. {Not the most flavorful option.}

Grill it. Slice it lengthwise and rub it with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Delicious.

Fry it. Slice into in rounds. Dip it in eggs. Dredge it in a flour, salt, and pepper mixture. Fry it in enough oil to cover the zucchini. {Southern classic that takes me back to my childhood.}

Make zucchini pancakes. This is a bit of a twist on the southern fried zucchini. Grate the zucchini, add other ingredients, then pan fry. Uses less oil. Surprisingly tastier than the classic fried zucchini. Use Ina Garten’s recipe. She also has a video showing how to make them.

Make zucchini bread. {It’s been a really long time since I’ve had zucchini bread, but lots of people enjoy it. Do you have a favorite recipe?}

Make zucchini muffins. My son loves muffins, so I found a super simple recipe for making muffins with zucchini. Is it really just a zucchini bread recipe put into muffin tins. You can decide. These muffins are so good. I wanted to eat them all {all 12}, but I didn’t. I just shared one with Aiden since it was after dinner when I made them. I used the zucchini muffins recipe from Simply Recipes. She recommends using melted butter. I used oil. I also added a touch more sugar and lots more vanilla.

Add it to chili. Yes. I did this. I sauteed the diced zucchini with the onions and garlic and then proceeded with the rest of my recipe. I liked the addition of the zucchini.

Add it to marinara sauce. Yes. I did this, too. I used my Giada inspired marinara sauce and sauteed the finely diced zucchini with the celery and carrots. Like the celery and carrots, the zucchini just adds texture to the sauce, but it doesn’t add any noticeable flavor.

Add it to an omelet. Not my best idea, but it tasted okay especially if you use a nice mix of veggies with it.

Make Rachael Ray’s Winter Vegetable Stew. Yes, odd that she calls it winter vegetable stew when most of us have an abundance of zucchini in the summer, but zucchini are also plentiful in the winter. This recipe really works any time of the year. It’s found in her cookbook, Rachael Ray 30 Minute Meals 2.

Try any number of random recipes you find. I’ve been thinking of making the rest of our squash into a soup, but I haven’t convinced my husband of the idea yet.

As I side note, I have to tell you that I am horrible at spelling zucchini. It is one word I consistently have to look up. Now that I’ve typed it a million times, hopefully it will stick in my brain. 😉

What did I miss? How else can we eat zucchini? What is your favorite way to prepare it?

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