The trouble is, you cannot grow just one zucchini. Minutes after you plant a single seed,
hundreds of zucchini will barge out of the ground and sprawl around the garden,
menacing the other vegetables. At night, you will be able to hear the ground quake
as more and more zucchinis erupt.
- Dave Barry
Well, we're back from our blog "vacation"! This past week has been full of fun, and gave me a chance to get caught up on some of the work going on in my garden! When I went out this morning, much to my dismay, there were 10 zucchini just aching to be picked. While I LOVE zucchini and the bounty of my garden, to be honest I just wanted to turn my head and be in zucchini denial! Once picked these wonders of the garden just have to be used up. In gratitude though, and in knowing that people in this world of ours are suffering and hungry...no zucchini will go to waste! Thank goodness though, for a friend who came over and took away two of the biggest one's for baking!
Here are a few creative and tasty ways to use up a zucchini!
First off...bring on the zucchini latkes!
You will need
1 zucchini...medium sized
2 potatoes
1 carrot
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour, (white or whole wheat)
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil, (or other vegetable oil)
So...get out your grater, and shred your zucchini, potatoes and carrot. Put it all in a large bowl. Add the eggs, flour and salt and pepper...stir it up.
Fill your fry pan with oil...at least a couple of cm worth. Heat it up and drop in your batter by the tablespoon full. Flatten it down and fry for 3 min per side. Get out your sour cream and/or maple syrup and devour!
I usually serve this dish with a side salad, however on this night we are also drowning in beans, so beans and side salad it is!
The next best thing to do with zucchini is to make Chocolate Zucchini Bread!
You will need:
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup applesauce
3 eggs
2/3 cup soymilk
2 cups shredded Zucchini
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Oil up 2 loaf pans. Then get a large bowl and pour in all of your dry ingredients, give it a stir to get out any lumpy bits. Make a well in the middle and add all the wet ingredients. Stir it up and pour into your prepared loaf pans. Put into an oven set to 350 degrees for 1 hour.
That's it! What I've been doing is making two at a time and freezing one of the loaves for later!
And here is another favourite recipe from the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It can be found HERE! Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies. Honestly, try them...they're delicious! And if you haven't already read the book, then GO and read it NOW!!!! I insist!
Any of the leftover zucchinis that aren't used for baking get grated and put into freezer bags, in 2 cup amounts. This way when I want to bake something in winter I have the perfect amount of zucchini per bag!
What do you do with your zucchini's...please share your ideas and zucchini inspiration!
Happy harvesting!
xo maureen
Great recipes. Last summer I froze grated zucchini and then used in chocolate loaf. I made a blunder, though. Once the grated zucchini was thawed in the bag, there was a lot of water which I squeezed out. It was the driest zucchini loaf I have ever made! I suppose I should not have squeezed out the water? What do you do when it has thawed out?
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Tricia
yeah! Nice to see you back. glad you got rebooted!
ReplyDeleteThe same happens in our garden,we have chooks, so sometimes excess bounty goes to them, and I have the view that we get it back in eggs. cheers Marie
ReplyDeleteThanks for these, yes we have courgette mania here too. Made courgette and potato soup last night and courgette and cocoa muffins a bit like your cake. xx
ReplyDeleteThere are kitchen tables all over the northern hemisphere groaning with oversized courgettes at the moment. Mine included. I hate the idea of wasting them. I agree with Marie, atleast they can be recycled as eggs, as the last resort. Thanks for two more recipes.
ReplyDeleteI went home on Thursday and made a huge batch of the latkes as well for supper, thanks to your gardening generosity. Yummy yummerlicious! I add grated cheese and cinnamon as well, which the kids love. We had the leftovers on Friday for lunch, and they are good cold too! We also made a five-times batch of zucchini bread which we've been devouring all weeekend and had zucchini boats for supper on Saturday. Our zukes have been pretty prolific as well! Happy harvesting my dear!
ReplyDeleteahhh we made the latkes this past weekend; as we are also overloaded in abundance with the mighty Z!
ReplyDeleteThe chocolate chip bread looks YUM! drooling here.....
glad that you're back!
LOVE latkes (thanks for the recipe I've used so many times!)...now I have plans for dinner! I wondered about squeezing out the water, too!
ReplyDeleteDON'T squeeze out the water. I just think, when you grate a fresh zucchini, there is always a certain amount of water in the bowl...if you had an obscene amount of liquid, maybe drain a bit of it off, but don't go squeezing out your thawed zucchini!!! That's my advice!
ReplyDeletexo maureen
perfect timing, we have many a courgette ( as we call them in the UK )ready for eating ... we add them to everything from grated raw in salads and sandwiches, to cakes and coleslaw.
ReplyDeleteMade savoury rice on Saturday and diced them up in that too .. great to add to a bolganise sauce, whcih could then be frozen.
Happy Courgettes xx
hope you had a wonderful vacation! we love zucchini, and chocolate zucchini muffins are one of our favorites. definitely going to have to try out those latkes though, as soon as I get back to the farmers market ;) Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDelete