Do you have friends or family members that share their bounty with you when they harvest from their gardens? I always enjoyed gifting veggies and stuff, but sadly, I no longer have a garden. Now, I'm usually on the receiving end, which is also very nice. The only problem is sometimes I get more than I can casually use. So, I'm hoping you guys have some recipes to share for extra zucchini and other summer veggies. I have a couple that I'll add as well.
My landlord and neighbor both grow zucchini so I get quite a bit this time of year! My two favorite easy things to do are slice them up and fry them (I just coat them in egg and breadcrumbs) and eat them with ranch! So yummy. My second favorite is slicing the zucchini in long strips and using them in lasagna instead of noodles! It's way better for you and tastes awesome!
There's a new kitchen gadget called a "spiralizer" which has gained some popularity recently. It basically can take a zucchini or yellow squash and turn them into fine spiral strips, which look like spaghetti more or less. These are popular with people on low carb diets as a substitute for pasta. When we had a garden, and a huge surplus of zucchini as well, my mom would often make a ton of zucchini bread, and give them away to friends and family. I've also heard of people making mock apple pies/apple dumplings with it - you basically just season the zucchini up like you would apples, along with a little lemon juice for tartness. Sauteed zucchini is great in scrambled eggs, or simply with some pasta tossed in olive oil and garlic (and a good amount of parmesan cheese). You can of course batter or bread the zucchini as well and deep fry it. One of my favorite sauces to serve with that is a mixture of horseradish and mayo. But marinara is good as well.
As I grow my own and zucchini are almost a staple part of my diet - as I mostly eat Mediterranean food - I have to say that there is not much that you can't do with them - for example you can add them to almost any stew, casserole, soup, pasta or rice dish use them raw - grated into salads - which are particularly good in pasta or potato salads when mixed with tuna, peppers and sun dried tomatoes are good when fried, eaten as a puree or sliced as a side dish turn them into soups - cold zucchini soups I have to say are not only tasty but very refreshing in the summer are especially tasty when stuffed - which can be done with either meat, fish, rice or other complimentary vegetables and either baked in the oven or marinated and grilled on the barbeque used as an addition to meat, fish or vegetable kebabs and grilled on the barbeque or simply just brushed with oil and cooked on the barbeque tastes pretty good too but if feeling a bit adventurous and wanting something a little different - zucchini cheese sandwiches basted with sun-dried tomatoes - are extremely delicious when barbequed and of course should you have any excess that you can't use immediately - you can always slice and freeze them.
Zucchini tastes wonderful when baked in a little bit of olive oil. You can also slightly steam it and use it with delicious home made dips that contain avocados, tahini, nut creams, etc. I also like using shredded zucchini as an ingredient in my veggie burgers, together with grated carrots, garlic and herbs, in combination with lentils, quinoa or aduki beans.
We always share our harvest with our neighbor. When we harvested the banana, there were more than 150 pieces and what was left to us was less than 50 and the 100 pieces went to the neighbors and office mates. Wehn our cassava crop is harvested, this is a better giveaway because we cook it first into cassava cake before giving away to friends and neighbors. Nice eh?
Yes, I need a spiralizer. That's the thingy that basically turns veggies into "noodles," right? I love it. I want one of those for making salads and other fun to eat vegetables. That would be a great way to fix up some zucchini. I'm sure it works well with a variety of vegetables, but I'd certainly give it a try for zucchini.
