Author: John Fladd

8 ideas for what to do with all the zucchini

For 11 months of the year, zucchini stays in the background. Then, suddenly in August, it’s everywhere. Whether it’s you or a neighbor or a coworker who has planted way too much, you may find yourself struggling to find something to do with five or six zucchini. Per week! Per bush!

Addie Leader-Zavos is a pastry chef and the co-owner of Eden’s Table Farm and Farm Store (240 Stark Highway North, Dunbarton, 774-1811, facebook.com/EdensTableFarm). She is all too familiar with the dangers of going into the growing season with a cavalier zucchini attitude.

“I think a single plant just produces a lot of zucchini in a short period of time,” she said. “So you end up with just too much. And then the worst part is, if you fall behind, the zucchinis just get bigger, so you just end up with more. You have to stay on top of it, but even staying on top of it, you’re getting too much. So you get lazy about picking it, but then you have even more.”

As opposed to the many, many varieties of heirloom tomatoes Leader-Zavos and her husband, Michael Williams, planted this season, they only planted three varieties of zucchini.

“We grow Haifa zucchini,” she said, “which is a Lebanese type. And we are growing Dark Star zucchini, which is like a more traditional dark green zucchini that we’re harvesting a little bit smaller. This year we’re trying a new one called Reinau Gold, which is a gold zucchini. They are a little bit smaller and they have a little bit more of a delicate flavor.”

Her advice for cooking with zucchini is to think about its specific qualities and what it would bring to a dish.

“I would definitely say zucchini adds moisture to baked goods,” she said. “It can be a little vegetal, if you’re cooking a savory thing; it can be a little sweet if you’re baking it into something sweet. But a lot of what it’s doing is adding moisture and a little bit of texture. By the time you finish baking like a muffin, there really isn’t a lot of texture for your zucchini left. But if you’re doing something like a fritter, then you do get some nice texture from it.”

So what to do with zucchini?

1. Something sweet

Brown Butter Zucchini Muffins with Crystalized Ginger

These muffins are inspired by one of Chef Leader-Zavos’ favorite uses for zucchini.

Dry ingredients

• 1½ cups (188 g) all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon kosher or coarse sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• ½ cup (55 g) candied or crystalized ginger, finely chopped

Wet ingredients

• ½ cup (1 cube) butter
• ½ cup (100 g) brown sugar (I know; it’s weird, but sugar is often considered a wet ingredient in baking. When you see how easily it dissolves into solution, this will make more sense.)
• ½ cup (100 g) white sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1½ cups partially peeled, shredded zucchini (about 1 medium zucchini, maybe 8 inches long) – leaving a little zucchini skin gives the finished muffins a few flecks of green

Preheat your oven to 425°F, and line nine muffin cups with paper liners. Grease the top of the muffin tin, so when the muffin blooms over the top, it won’t get trapped in a dead-end relationship with the muffin tin.

Brown your butter, which is a lot simpler than it sounds. Unwrap a cube of butter, and put it in a small saucepan, then cook it over low or medium-low heat. First it will melt, then it will spit a little as the last of the water cooks out. Swirl the saucepan a little to stir the butter. If it ever seems like things are moving too quickly, just lift the pan off the heat for a few seconds. When the butter starts to foam, you are getting close. Swirl and lift, swirl and lift, until the butter has darkened to a golden brown color. Remove the pan from the heat, and let it cool. It will darken a little more, even after you’ve taken it off the stove. That’s normal. Don’t worry; you didn’t make a mistake.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Stir everything to combine, making sure that all the ginger pieces get coated with flour; this will keep them from clumping together or sinking to the bottom of each muffin.

Combine all the wet ingredients in a separate bowl and stir to combine. Make sure the brown butter has cooled enough that it won’t cook the egg.

Pour the contents of one bowl into the other, then stir to combine. Spoon the batter into the lined muffin cups, filling them to the top. Unlike cupcakes, you want these to expand into a bigger-on-top mushroom shape. Bake at 425°F for five minutes, then drop the heat to 350°F, and bake for another 13 to 15 minutes. When the muffins look like muffins and a toothpick comes out clean, remove them from the oven and let them cool for a few minutes, before gently twisting them and removing them from the muffin tin.

These are outstanding muffins. They taste a little butterscotchy from the brown butter and brown sugar, and the coarse salt and candied ginger give little pops of flavor. The zucchini keeps everything beautifully moist. These may be the ultimate book club muffins.

2. Something smoky

Sarasin-Grilled Zucchini

I grew up not liking zucchini very much and have retained a certain amount of zucchini dread into my adulthood.

Keith Sarasin, Chef and operator of Farmer’s Table, Aatma, and Aatma Curry House (keithsarasin.com), thinks exposure therapy is a good way to get over that.

“Zucchini is one of those wonderful, super versatile and abundant things that we get in the Northeast,” he said. “And honestly, it actually has a lot more purpose than just kind of that dish that maybe a family member made that you kind of just went ‘Meh’ with.”

He advised really embracing the zucchini’s essential zucchininess, by cooking it on the grill.

“It’s one of the simplest ways that people can use zucchini, and I guarantee everyone’s going to like it,” he said confidently.

• Several small to medium-sized zucchini, 6 to 8 inches long
• Approximately ½ cup olive oil
• 4 to 5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
• Coarse salt and freshly shaved or ground Parmesan cheese for garnish

In a small saucepan, heat the olive oil and the garlic over low heat for half an hour or more, to let the garlic thoroughly infuse the oil.

Chef Sarasin said to cut the zucchini in half lengthwise, then cut shallow cross-hatching across the flesh of each zucchini.

“Cross-hatching sounds fancy, but all you’re doing is you’re making shallow diagonal cuts on one side, and then you’re going on the other side to make a diamond pattern,” he said. “You don’t want to cut all the way through the zucchini; you really want to cut about a quarter inch tops down, really more like an eighth of an inch.” A good way to do this is with a utility knife with the blade extended to the first, shallowest setting.

Brush the face of the zucchini liberally with garlic oil, then cook face-down on the grill. (If you have a gas grill, you’re shooting for somewhere around 350°F.) Grill the zucchini for four minutes or so, then flip them over to see how seared and caramelized they are. If they need a little more time, brush them with more garlic oil, then flip them back over.

With your tongs or a fork, squeeze or poke the backs of each zucchini. If the cut faces are cooked enough but the back side still feels a little too firm, flip them on their backs and cook for another two to three minutes.

Take the zucchini back inside, and scoop them out of their skins before serving. Chef Sarasin suggested topping them with coarse salt and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. “It’s just a wonderful smoky addition [to your plate],” he said. “You’re getting smoky and sweet and savory all at the same time. It’s just a wonderful way to use zucchini.”

He’s right.

3. Something sippable

Zucchini-tini

You will need to make zucchini water for this recipe:

Wash and then cut two or three unpeeled medium-sized zucchini into chunks, then blitz them in your blender until they look like slightly wet hot dog relish. Drape a tea towel over a mixing bowl or a large measuring cup, then pour the contents of the blender onto the towel. Twist and squeeze the towel-wrapped zucchini, until you have enough zucchini water (which just sounds better than “zucchini juice”) to use for a round of cocktails.

Using zucchini in a cocktail seems like a bit of a stretch, but it’s not unprecedented. Search the internet for “zucchini cocktail” and you will find a surprising number of recipes, some from reputable sources. This particular drink uses zucchini water for a jade green color and a subtle vegetal background flavor. Vodka allows that to assert itself without covering it with botanical flavors.

• 2 ounces skull-shrinkingly cold vodka from the freezer
• 2 ounces zucchini water (see above)
• ½ ounces fresh squeezed lemon juice
• ½ ounces orgeat (almond syrup)

Pour all ingredients over ice in a cocktail shaker, and shake ruthlessly for a minute or so, until you hear the ice breaking up inside. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Sip while listening to Oscar Peterson. His music, some of the best piano jazz ever recorded, doesn’t have any immediate connection to zucchini, but more people should listen to Oscar Peterson.

The first thing you’ll notice about this cocktail is its vibrant green color. The next thing will be the interplay between the ingredients.The lemon tries to take over as the dominant flavor, but the zucchini makes itself known. It gives a green, slightly bitter quality, which is balanced out by the almond syrup. This is a good answer to that friend who is always bragging about their juice fast.

4. Something spicy

Zucchini Salsa

A good salsa is a surprisingly delicate dance. Acidic tomatoes play off chiles of varying intensity. Even more acidic lime juice keeps chopped onion from being too assertive. Throw a salsa together thoughtlessly, and it will be out of balance. Overthink it, and you’ll end up with a muddled flavor profile that doesn’t really taste of anything in particular. And that’s before we even get into the controversial topic of cilantro.

Where even good, thoughtful salsas fall down a lot of the time is on the texture front; they are missing a crunchy element. Zucchini brings a crunchiness, color and a green flavor to this salsa, which is inspired by a recipe from food-blogger Nikki Dinki.

• 2 ripe tomatoes, cored and peeled
• Half of a medium zucchini (about 130 g), peeled and diced
• ¼ of a red onion (about 60 g), finely chopped
• A large handful of cilantro leaves and tender stems, finely chopped (see below)
• ¼ cup (about 5 g) fresh mint leaves, minced
• The juice of one lime (about 40 g)
• ¾ teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ½ cup (about 75 g) pickled jalapeño slices, chopped

Mix all ingredients together in a nonreactive bowl, and stir to combine. Cover and let the salsa ingredients get to know each other.

This is a solid, dependable salsa. The ingredients all complement each other, and the zucchini provides just enough crunch. If the crunchiness is a little too pronounced, next time, chop it finer.

If you are making this salsa for someone who hates cilantro, try subbing it out with a quarter cup of minced basil. Basil goes well with mint and has a passionate romance with tomatoes. It’s not traditional, but it’s just as good on a taco.

5. Something savory

Zucchini and Feta Pancakes

These are a sort of a cross between vegetable fritters and egg foo yung. With a salad, they make a good lunch, or a pre-workout meal that won’t weigh you down.

Pancakes:

• 2½ cups partially peeled and shredded zucchini (1 to 1½ medium zucchini) – I like to leave a few stripes of peel, to add a little color and texture to the finished pancakes
• ½ (about 75 g) red bell pepper, finely chopped
• ½ cup (25 g) fresh dill, chopped
• 8 ounces (225 g) feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 bunch (4 or 5) scallions, chopped
• 3 eggs, beaten
• ½ cup (60 g) all-purpose or rice flour
• 1 teaspoon dark sesame oil
• ½ cup vegetable oil for frying

Mix everything together in a large bowl.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, until it shimmers slightly. Spoon ¼ to ⅓ cup of the batter into the hot oil for each pancake, and pat it flat with the back of a spoon. Don’t overcrowd the skillet. Cook for two or three minutes on each side, and drain on paper towels. Serve with dipping sauce on the side.

Dipping Sauce:

• Tangy mayonnaise – Cains or Duke’s
• Vietnamese chili-garlic paste – I like the Huy Fong brand. You can find it at an Asian grocery store or online, but surprisingly more and more mainstream supermarkets carry it.

Mix the mayo and chili paste together in a roughly 2-to-1 ratio. Adjust for personal taste.

These pancakes are tender and herby, with just a little bit of crunch from the vegetables. The hint of sesame oil gives them a savory background flavor, which goes really well with the dipping sauce. The moisture from the zucchini keeps the pancakes from ever getting crisp, but they are excellent the next day, heated in an air fryer.

6. Something CHOCOLATY

Chocolate Zucchini Bundt Cake

As Addie Leader-Zavos pointed out, baked goods generally use zucchini to slowly release water during the baking process to keep the finished product moist. This extremely fudgy cake, which I adapted to a bundt cake from a King Arthur Baking recipe, is very moist. In addition, the traditional espresso powder normally used to brighten dark chocolate cakes has been replaced with cayenne pepper — just enough to remind everyone who eats the cake who they are dealing with.

• 8 ounces (1 stick) butter, softened
• ½ cup (99 g) vegetable oil
• 1¾ cup (347 g) brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste, or 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon coarse salt
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup (113 g) sour cream
• ¾ cup (64 g) unsweetened cocoa powder, plus more for dusting the Bundt pan
• 2½ cups (300 g) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 3 cups (about 2 medium) peeled and shredded zucchini
• ½ cup (85 g) chopped dark chocolate

Preheat your oven to 325°F.

Prepare your Bundt pan by buttering it thoroughly, then sifting cocoa powder into it. Make sure the entire surface of the inside of the pan is coated. If there are any spots where the cocoa didn’t stick, rub a little more butter on them, and coat with more cocoa powder.

Using a hand mixer, or in a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together. When they have completely joined together, add the oil, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Beat the eggs in, one at a time.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder and cayenne pepper. Spoon the flour blend into the mixer, alternating with the sour cream.

Stir the zucchini and chocolate chunks into the mixture by hand. Spoon the batter evenly into your prepared Bundt pan, then bonk it against the counter a couple of times to eliminate any air bubbles.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. You can test the cake’s doneness with a toothpick, but the depth of the Bundt pan and the moisture from the zucchini might make the toothpick test unreliable. If you have a probe thermometer, bake it until it has an internal temperature of 200°F. When it does, remove it from the oven and cool on a wire rack for about 20 minutes, before flipping it onto a plate. I find that when I do this I stand on my toes and bring the pan and plate down as sharply as possible. I like to cry out like I am completing a devastating martial arts move. Leave the cake to cool completely.

This is not a pretty-good-for-a-zucchini-cake cake. It is a really good cake — deeply chocolatey, with a subtle kick of cayenne. As per its brief, the zucchini has released its moisture during the baking process, then all but disappeared, leaving a moist, slightly decadent cake in its wake. This is excellent served warm, with vanilla ice cream, or cold, with slightly sweetened sour cream.

7. Something fried & baked

Zucchini Parmesan

• Several medium-sized zucchini (8 inches or so), peeled
• 1 5.5-ounce (158 g) can of Pizza Flavored Pringles
• ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup (60 g or so) all-purpose or rice flour for dredging
• 5-6 slices provolone cheese
• Jarred marinara sauce – I like Bove’s
• Another ¼ cup of grated Parmesan
• 1 8-ounce bag (about 2 cups) of shredded mozzarella cheese
• ½ cup vegetable oil for frying

Cut the zucchini lengthwise into thin slices — no more than ¼ inch thick. Salt the slices, and leave them to drain on paper towels for half an hour or so. Rinse the salt off, and pat them dry.

Pulverize the Pringles in your blender or food processor, mix with ¼ cup of Parmesan, and pour into a shallow dish. Beat the eggs thoroughly and pour into another shallow dish. Pour the flour into yet another shallow dish. Leftover frozen dinner containers work really well for this.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat, until it shimmers.

Flour and coat four or five slices of zucchini. Dredge each slice in flour, so it has two completely dry surfaces. Eggs don’t stick well to anything damp, so the flour will prepare the zucchini slices for the next step, which is to coat each side with beaten egg. The egg is feeling very good about itself at this point and would like to stick to something else dry and powdery — in this case, the Pringles-Parmesan mixture.

Fry four or five coated zucchini slices in the hot oil, turning after a minute or two. Do not be alarmed if they start looking like trout filets. As each zucchini slice finishes cooking, remove it to drain on paper towels. Keep dredging, frying and draining, until all the zucchini has been cooked.

Spoon enough marinara into a 9”-by-9” baking dish to coat the bottom. Place a layer of fried zucchini on top of it. Spoon enough marinara to cover each slice, but don’t drown them. Cover the sauced zucchini with slices of provolone. Place the rest of the zucchini in a second layer and cover with more sauce. Sprinkle the other ¼ cup of Parmesan cheese over the top, followed by the entire bag of shredded mozzarella.

Bake at 325°F for half an hour, or until the mozzarella layer has completely melted and is just starting to look a little toasty. Remove from the oven and let it cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Like all good Parmesans, this is very cheesy, with just a bit of crispness mixed through it from the coating on the fried zucchini slices. While fairly neutral in flavor, the zucchini stays firmer than eggplant, which can sometimes dissolve into mush. The flavor from the fried Pringles lies in the background but deepens the overall taste of the dish. The zestiness of the tomato sauce plays off the three types of cheese. It is just saucy enough, without being soupy. This would be a good second-date dish.

8. Something like pasta

Zucchini Noodles with Chickpeas and Pistachio Pesto

Many of us have a spiralizer in the back of a kitchen drawer or cabinet that we bought in a fit of optimism a few years ago when we heard that you can make noodles out of vegetables that taste like the real thing. Like many promises in our youth, this one turned out to be an empty one; a carrot still tastes like a carrot, no matter what its shape. The same is true for zucchini. That doesn’t mean that zucchini noodles don’t taste good; it just means that they will never taste like linguini. Cooked just until slightly tender, and sauced thoughtfully, they can be very nice, indeed.

• 1 medium zucchini, half peeled – again, I like to have a few specks of green in the final dish
• ½ can (140 g) chickpeas, rinsed and drained.
• 3 Tablespoons pistachio pesto (see below)
• 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil for frying
• Shredded Parmesan cheese and more pistachios for garnish
• Olive oil for drizzle

Pesto:

• 2 packed cups (45 g) pesto leaves
• ½ teaspoon coarse salt
• ¼ cup (35 g) roasted, salted pistachios
• ½ cup (106 g) extra virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup (60 g) grated or shredded Parmesan cheese

In your blender or food processor, blitz the above ingredients into a mostly smooth paste. If you have a Magic Bullet or another small blender for making smoothies, it will be just the right size for this.

Use your spiralizer to turn the zucchini into noodles. If you only make vegetable noodles once in a while, an inexpensive, hand-held model will be fine.

Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat until it shimmers.

Fry the chickpeas until they brown slightly. Do not be alarmed when they start popping like popcorn. If it freaks you out, cover the pan with its lid. Just don’t forget to check up on the chickpeas every 20 seconds or so. Add the 3 tablespoons of pesto, stir everything together, and let it cook for another two minutes or so.

Add the “zoodles” to the pan and cook them for another two minutes or so, stirring constantly. Do not overcook them or they will turn mushy. They should be tender but with a little bit of crunch left in them.

Serve immediately, topped with more pistachios and Parmesan cheese, and drizzled with a little more olive oil. Chopsticks work well with this dish.

The pesto and the noodles play equal roles in this dish. The pesto has a more dynamic flavor, but the noodles provide just a little crunch and a subtle vegetable taste. Depending on your personal preference, you might want to cut the noodles to a shorter length before cooking them. It turns out that a spiralizer can turn a zucchini into shockingly long noodles, but that can be useful for recreating the spaghetti scene from Lady and the Tramp.