What to do with all that summer zucchini! — Recipes and Ideas

Late summer is a great time for zucchini, and if you’re a locavore or a gardener you’ve likely found yourself practically swimming in it! Hence comes the time we all need to dig down and find all the zucchini recipes and ideas we can get our hands on.

I can remember one summer our CSA farm share was so overflowing with zucchini that we were actually offered as many hulking foot-long pieces of zucchini as we could manage to cook up and eat! So in honor of August and zucchini, and at the request of one of my readers, I hereby embark on this offering of zucchini recipes and other ways to use the prodigious summer squash. Check out my post on nutritional information for zucchini, too!

How to Cook Zucchini a la “Quick and Easy”

photo credit: bookgrl

Zucchini and its partner, the yellow summer squash, are light buttery vegetables, and while they blend well in all kinds of dishes they are also in my opinion simply phenomenal with a minimum of effort. Just sauté them in butter or olive oil until they soften and lightly brown to get a clean, summery taste. Add some chopped fresh herbs if you have them, such as basil, dill or parsley.

I actually prefer cooking zucchini sautéed rather than boiled or steamed. As summer squash are high in water content, the addition of more water seems to dilute their flavor.

What’s that? You want a recipe? Keep it simple, stupid? Here’s an easy zucchini recipe adapted from the The New Basics Cookbook (aff) by Rosso and Lukins. I love the New Basics for exploring vegetables and learning their qualities. Each veggie has its own section with tips for buying, storing, preparing and cooking, along with a few recipes to try.

How to buy zucchini?

The New Basics recommends choosing pieces that are firm and heavy with thin and tender skin. Avoid those with bruises and scrapes and try to stick with the smaller zucchini if you can, 5-7 inches long. I can’t help but add, however, if you do find yourself with some really huge zucchini, they are actually great for stuffed zucchini recipes! (Although I didn’t include it here, there’s a great stuffed zucchini recipe in the The New Laurel’s Kitchen (aff), a vegetarian cookbook packed with health and nutrition information.)

Easy Sauteed Zucchini Recipe

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 T Butter
1 T minced onion or shallots
1 pound diagonally sliced zucchini and/or yellow summer squash
1 T chopped fresh dill
Salt and ground pepper, to taste
Grated parmesan cheese, to taste

For this easy saute, also a bit of a zucchini parmesan, heat the oil and butter on low heat, add onion or shallots and sauté until translucent. Add the zucchini and/or squash, raise heat to medium and sauté, turning, until lightly browned and softened, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with dill, salt and pepper and toss. Serve with cheese!

More Healthy Zucchini Recipes

Grilled Zucchini with Marinade

One of my favorite sandwich alternatives is roasted or grilled veggies with mayonnaise on bread. If you’re a garlic fan like me, sprinkle on a bit of garlic powder or garlic salt for a delicious extra kick. Of course, to do so, you must first actually have some grilled veggies! Try this grilled vegetables recipe.

Summer Vegetable Stir-Fry Recipe

This stir-fry recipe is adapted from the Sunday’s at Moosewood Cookbook out of Ithaca, NY. It’s an authentic Chinese vegetarian stir-fry recipe.

Veggie Mom’s Stir-Fry

I tried this thai veggie stir-fry by Angela, Veggiemom on twitter, and it was dee-lish and doesn’t require all the exotic ingredients that some Thai food requires.

Sweet Zucchini Pancakes

Although I haven’t (yet!) tried these, what list would be complete without a shredded-zucchini-in-a-bread-product recipe? Shelly of The World According to Eggface shared this recipe which includes whole wheat flour and ricotta cheese. Her blog also features stories of her heroic journey out of obesity.

Chocolate Zucchini Brownies

OK, chocolate and zucchini? Complete with pictures of kids at the cuisinart, Big and Little Green featured this recipe as a solution to the ever-abundant zucchini.

How Do I Get My Kids to Eat Vegetables Like Zucchini and Summer Squash?

When I first introduced zucchini to my son, now age 12, I told it to him like this:

“Here’s a vegetable that’s like butter. Do you taste the butter? Sometimes people put it in sandwiches instead of meat because it’s easier to chew and it’s so buttery!”

I always found that I had good success when I prepared a food well and played up its similarity to other foods that were a given: butter, sugar, chocolate, etc. (mushrooms are like chocolate!).

With zucchini, I’d recommend actually cooking in butter until extra soft, and being sure to serve a piece that’s low in seeds. I’ve noticed that often it’s actually the *texture* of vegetables that some kids react to more than the flavor.

Zucchini Home Remedies

Zucchini is a great food for its nutritional value, but if that weren’t enough, would you believe I actually found some home remedies using zucchini? Read more in my post on zucchini’s health benefits.

Zucchini and the Three Sisters: Recipes, History, and a Gardening Project!

Image via Wikipedia

As a summer squash, zucchini serves as a member of the “three sisters” of maize (corn), bean, and squash. This ancient diet was a mainstay of Native Americans of both South and North America. Their agricultural genius led to the development of an interdependent “companion planting” system taking advantage of properties of the three plants. By planting the three together, the shade of the squash vines protected the growing crop, preventing weeds, deterring pests and providing moisture. Later, the corn stalks were able to support the growing vines of the beans, eliminating the need for poles. Clever, no?

Today, we have further proofs of the scientific benefits of the Native Americans’ three sisters companion planting technique. Research has shown that bacteria from the bean roots actually provide nitrogen to the soil essential to the corn. Their growth together also increased the nutritional yield per square foot of land and required less fertilizer and water to produce. Nutritionally, the three sisters provide a complete protein and allowed the early peoples of the Americas to thrive, reducing their dependence on meat as a protein.

An interesting and more recent factoid is the creation of the Three Sisters Nutrition Project by the Oneida Indian Nation Health Department in 1994. Observing the increase in the incidence of disabling diseases such as diabetes, the project was created to inspire lifestyle changes among Native Americans by returning to traditional foods.

To enjoy the nutritional benefits of the three Sisters, you can view the Three Sisters Cookbook online, featuring Native American recipes from the Oneida Nation. Located in Central New York, the Oneida Indian Nation is a member of the Haudenosaunee, known in English as the Six Nations or Iroquois Confederacy. Their website is a great resource in cultural history, especially as the Iroquois Confederacy also helped shape our own Constitution. Take note homeschoolers!

A great idea to start in the spring for kids (or adults): create a three sisters garden! KidsGardening.com shows you how.

Happy Zucchini Harvest!

Mama Hope

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