Monday, August 2, 2010

For the love of Zucchini.

This is the first of many zucchini posts. :) Right now we are totally swimming in zucchini...which is not a bad thing. i have given many away, and have 15 on my counter, and that is after already making two zucchini salads, zucchini mock apple pie, and blueberry zucchini muffins yesterday. i haven't even looked on my plants this morning, but after all of yesterdays rain...i can only image i have more.



When most people hear the word zucchini, they automatically think of zucchini bread. Zucchini bread is actually one of the last things i make with zucchini. It's just never been a favorite.
This year, with the weather being hotter than usual, i haven't wanted to turn on my oven much. So i've been exploring more recipes that use raw zucchini.



A favorite right now, being raw zucchini noodles. These can be created using a mandoline, or a carrot peeler. The carrot peeler will create thicker ribbon noodles, and then you can use a knife to make thinner noodles if you like.



Zucchini noodles with fresh pesto. i still have pesto leftover from last year. i froze it in ice cup trays, and then transferred the pesto cubes into freezer bags. To make this dish. i thawed two pesto cubes, and mixed it with around 1 packed cup of zucchini noodles. i tossed a few pinenuts on top. Cherry tomato halves would be great with this, but i didn't have any ripe at the time. You can also top it with some fresh Parmesan cheese if you like.
If you don't have any pre-made pesto on hand, you can find a basic pesto recipe here.
This recipe is quick and simple, yet extremely flavorful and delicious.




Zucchini noodles with fresh tomato. This is another simple and tasty recipe. For this one i mixed a fresh chopped vine ripened tomato, with minced garlic, a bit of olive oil and some fresh shredded basil. This would also be great topped with fresh goat cheese, feta or Parmesan cheese.

While searching recipes i came across a couple others i would love to try. Like zucchini ribbons with marinara and zucchini rolls with goat cheese.

Both the kids love to eat zucchini and yellow squash sticks raw with a vegetable dip, or plain. i am really enjoying exploring new ways to use zucchini raw, and this week will be trying a few more.
So if you like these, be sure and check back for more zucchini recipes! We are supposed to be having some cooler days this week, and i'm planning to do a bit of baking while the temperatures are a bit lower. So you can expect to see zucchini blueberry muffins, and 'mock' apple pie, and a few of my other of my favorite baked zucchini recipes in the coming days.
What is your favorite way to eat zucchini?




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