by Katie DeFrank
For some reason, my little garden plot will only yield massive zucchini’s this summer.
Last summer, we had a plethora of cucumbers, and this year, while they look identical on the outside, zucchini’s as big as my calf grow in under seven days.
As a result, I’ve had to experiment with several (delicious!) zucchini recipes.
- Baked zucchini and eggplant
My sister in law decided to experiment on this one. She’s fantastically healthy and luckily for me, had a new clever way to cook the zucchini. Technically she combined two recipes and then modified them on her own BUT essentially she made a kind of vegetarian lasagna with zucchini and eggplant. Try this recipe here from Bon Appetit!
2. Pesto Chicken with Lemon-y Cous cous and zucchini
After a full-weekend of traveling, I love to order Hello Fresh boxes to eliminate any temptation of fast-food or, in my case, a big bowl of ramen early in the week. This pesto chicken recipe was so yummy and luckily for me, I was able to add even more of our garden zucchini into the mix.
3. Sautéed Zucchini and Halibut.
I tend not to buy fish as often as I should from the grocery store. I’m always afraid it might be fishy or not fresh enough and shy away. However, after spending 20 minutes suffering through a Whole Foods trip with me, my husband wandered off to the fish counter and came back with a Halibut steak and salmon filet. We packed up our fish, our tibia sized zucchini and a few other ingredients and headed up to Whistler for the weekend. Equipped with the basics, I simply chopped and sautéed the zucchini with garlic, olive oil, chopped shallot, rosemary and some salt and pepper (I may have finished it off with a teaspoon of butter!) Same with the halibut…except with more butter. I watched both of them closely on the stove to ensure no over cooking and my husband grilled the salmon outside. Easiest, health-ish meal ever. (does it butter really count?). Genius Kitchen cooked up something similar but added tomatoes and lemon so try their recipe here.
4. Cream of Zucchini Soup https://www.ricardocuisine.com/en/recipes/6653-cream-of-zucchini-soup
5. Parmesan Pasta with Zucchini
The ultimate use of pantry inventory for me: pasta, bacon, cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese. Did I mention bacon? I simply sautéed the zucchini in olive oil, garlic and crushed red pepper while the pasta was boiling and bacon was crisping. After the bacon was done I chopped it up into tiny pieces and set aside. Drained the pasta, keeping 1 cup of pasta water. I added scoops of shredded parmesan cheese and cheddar cheese to the pasta, adding a little bit of the pasta water along the way to help melt the cheese and coat the pasta. Added the zucchini into the mix and finished with mixing in the bacon bits and salt and pepper.
Here’s something a little more official, but honestly, it’s easy to eye ball the ingredients and add as much (or as little of each!) they all taste good by themselves and even better together!
And don’t forget the rose!