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Monday, July 20, 2015

Z is for Zucchini

ZUCCHINIIIIII!!!!!! The season is upon us and now the question is...what the heck does one do with all that zucchini?  I don't have a vegetable garden, yet I am still plagued by overabundance of the green squash.  My daughter, in all her generosity, decided I should have the free zucchinis given to her by friends and neighbors (she hates all things squash). Not only did she hand over three zucchinis, she handed over two giants and one behemoth!



So the challenge was on.  I searched through my Pinterest boards and printed out some likely recipe candidates, donned my apron and began baking a variety of breads.  It's amazing how many zucchini recipes are out there, but then again, I guess it's not so surprising considering everyone faces this squash dilemma every summer.

Here are the results of three hours of baking:


On the left is Award-Winning Zucchini Muffins, front and center is Cinnamon Swirl Zucchini Bread, and on the right back is Glazed Lemon Zucchini Bread.  Now here is the amazing thing... I made all of these from the one behemoth zucchini and still had more of that same zucchini left!  Take a look at the large chunk still left...
My husband did a taste test of the three baked goods.  He liked all three but the overwhelming favorite was the Cinnamon Swirl (have to admit it was mine too),
though it is really unfair to compare since they were all quite different.

The Glazed Lemon Zucchini Bread was quite moist and lusciously lemony.  It was just a tad too moist though. I  think perhaps that was due to the fact that I substituted brown rice flour for cake flour.  Whenever I can, I like to use gluten free and vegan ingredients.  I also used almond milk with apple cider vinegar as a substitute for butttermilk.  I don't think this affected the batter at all.
Click Here for recipe
The Award-Winning Zucchini Muffins were unique because they had a brown sugar oat streusel on top and chocolate chip surprises in the muffin cake...Yum.

Next time I make these, I won't follow the instruction to fill the muffin cups to top before adding the streusel.  They took too long to bake fully and therefore dried out a bit.  Still very yummy though.  Again I substituted spelt flour for the all-purpose flour.  In all of the recipes, I used organic cane sugar instead of refined sugar. Click here for recipe

The cinnamon bread had a great texture, and not even a hint of the zucchini taste that was hiding inside, just delectable spicy cinnamon bread. (spelt flour again instead of regular flour).
You can find the recipe HERE

So, three baked zucchini dishes done.  But what about that last piece of the giant squash? I refused to be defeated by that elephant-sized zucchini.  So, with dinner only two hours away, I decided to make a sidedish for the fish my husband was making for dinner.  A quick scan of Pinterest recipes, and...voila...Zucchini Fritters! First grate the zucchini and let sit to draw out water, drain and squeeze it dry,

then add all the spices and flour ( recipe called for Kamut flour, I used spelt). And fry the little fritters up.


Perfect complement to sole.  Add local corn on the cob from the farmstand and you have the perfect summer dinner.  Catch the fritter recipe HERE

What's that you say?  What happened to the other two large zucchini from the first photo?  Never fear, tomorrow they will meet the SPIRALIZER!  Can't wait to try out this gadget.  Think I will either do pesto zoodles or a Thai zoodle version.  I'll let you know.



What are your favorite zucchini recipes?  Any unusual or unique ideas for cooking with the abundant green squash?

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