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My Neighbor's Zucchini. My Recipes.
Published about 5 hours ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader,
Every year around now, someone leaves zucchini on my doorstep. No note. Just zucchini, the way other people get left flowers. My neighbor's garden has clearly turned on them, and the only humane response to a zucchini glut is to spread it around before it spreads to you. I have stopped resisting. A good zucchini summer is a fun problem to have, because zucchini works just about anywhere: shredded into a cake, sliced into a gratin, grilled in slabs, folded into pasta, fried into the thing kids will actually eat. If your counter also has more zucchini than any reasonable household requested, the full plan for using every last one starts here.
When the Garden Won't Quit
Salt and drain it before it goes in anything. Zucchini is mostly water. Salt shredded or sliced zucchini, wait, then squeeze, or your dish turns to soup.
Grill or roast it hard for real flavor. Gentle cooking leaves it watery and bland; high heat concentrates it and gives it browned, crisp edges.
Shred it into baking when the counter is overrun. Cakes and breads swallow a startling amount of zucchini and stay moist for it. The fastest way through a glut.
Smaller zucchini taste better than the giants. The baseball-bat ones are watery and seedy. Use those for bread; save the small firm ones for the table.
Send some back out the door. Cook what you can, gift the rest, and make peace with seeing it again next week. The whole zucchini plan is waiting below.
Although this zucchini gratin with fresh herbs and goat cheese has a fancy-sounding name, it's really just an easy, cheesy, baked zucchini casserole. It's an excellent way to use up a glut of summer squash.
This protein-packed zucchini & eggs recipe is a delicious way to start the day; to mix things up, you can also add feta and dill to make it Greek-style.
This is a perfect side dish for times when you’re firing up the grill for other items on your dinner menu. Grilled zucchini are great when served warm or even at room temperature, so if you’re going to be grilling other items as well, we recommend grilling the zucchini first.
Here’s a quick, lemony vegetarian pasta dish that can easily be adapted to other greens: try it with asparagus, broccoli or broad beans when you tire of zucchini.
Going keto doesn’t mean that you have to give up American traditional dishes—with a little creativity most of your favorite foods can be adapted. A base of sliced zucchini and tomatoes, topped with lots of melted cheese and marinara makes a suitable sub for pizza.
Zucchini are regarded as cooling so they're nearly always married with warming spices or herbs, such as dill and mint. The distinct flavor of roasted garlic also works perfectly with the tangy zucchini slices.
This old-fashioned zucchini cake, made in a Bundt pan with plenty of summer squash, walnuts, and cinnamon, still appeals to a contemporary crowd with its moist crumb and sweet but not-too-sweet glaze inflected with vanilla or lemon.
This indulgently creamy, macaroni and cheese with zucchini has three types of cheese and just the right amount of crunch from the garlicky brown butter bread crumbs. It's likely no one will even notice the vegetables that are hidden in there.
Why, hello! Leite's Culinaria is the James Beard Award-winning site that helps home cooks and bakers put dinner on the table and laughs in the kitchen. Hungry for more? Join 40,000 food lovers and subscribe.
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