The zucchini nightmare has begun.
Somewhere between the first zucchini of the season and the pulling of the spent plant in the fall, I have to try and come up with new and exciting ways to use this prolific summer squash.
I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but I really don't like zucchini.
At all.
I was the child who would still be sitting at the dinner table, hours after dinner was actually over, lamenting over the fact that my parents couldn't possibly love me if they were forcing me to eat a food that caused violent retching and possible convulsions.
I'm fairly certain that zucchini played a role in my pre-pubescent acne epidemic, and was probably the cause of Mt. St. Helens erupting in 1980 too.
My parents also called me "dramatic", but I think I was just misunderstood. (Clearly.) See, it's not as if I didn't like green foods. I loved sour apple Jolly Ranchers. Green jello made me smile and a tall glass of lime Kool-aid made me downright swoon. In fact, I'm fairly certain that I consumed every color of the rainbow in the Kool-aid department, but put a plate of zucchini in front of me, and green became my nemesis.
As an adult, I love to grow zucchini in the garden, but that's where it ends. Unless that veggie is hidden in layers of chocolate, and flour, I still have issues with it. Unfortunately for me, my family LOVES zucchini. And not just the green stuff either. They like every kind of squash out there and expect me to prepare it for them!
Will this nightmare ever end?
Yes!
I have discovered Zucchini Fritters and life will never be the same.
Just please don't tell my children...I'm not done martyring myself yet.☺
~Zucchini Fritters~
~The Players~
4 cups grated zucchini
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup chopped onion
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tb. dried parsley ~or~ 2-3 Tb. fresh parsley, chopped
1 cup flour (I used brown rice flour to make it gluten-free.)
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese (not the stuff in the can!)
salt & pepper, to taste
expeller-pressed coconut oil for frying
Mix all ingredients except for the coconut oil in a large mixing bowl. In a heavy skillet, heat a few Tb. of coconut oil to medium hot. Drop batter into skillet to make 3-4 inch pancakes. Cook for about 2 minutes on one side, or until edges turn brown.
Carefully turn the fritters over and cook another 2 minutes. Remove and lay on paper towel to absorb excess oil. Cover to keep warm. Continue to cook remaining batter, adding more coconut oil as needed.
Serve with sour cream.
16 comments:
Zucchini fritters are wonderful, one of my favorite ways to eat zucchini, in addition to sour cream we also like a side of salsa with ours. My zucchini are about a week away, can't wait! Loved your post, the Kool-Aid bit was funny, I secretly still love lime Kool-Aid :) ~April
We have a favorite restaurant in our area that is owned by some Japanese ladies. A buffet that only costs $6 and they homecook everything. They make fried zuchini in a delicious light tempura batter, along with green tomatoes and onion rings. Let me tell you, this is a dangerous place to go on a regular basis as you can eat far too much of this stuff! These fritters sound devine! Please send all the zuchini you want to SC and we will eat it! Our yard is in total shade and we can't grow veggies :(
I have the very BEST way to eat zucchini. Its a recipe for ZUCCHINI COBBLER. Don't freak out. I PROMISE that it tastes just like apple cobbler! Everyone loves it and even my most pickiest eater (23 years old) loved it and couldn't tell. I peel the entire zucchini, slice in half long-ways,scoop out the seeds with a spoon, and then slice the zucchini. They slices even LOOK like apples. I posted this recipe on the Organic Gardening recipe discussion board and they are going CRAZY over this recipe! Even the skeptics! Someone mentioned you could probably make up the "filling" and freeze it for making pies and cobblers all winter. I think I do that too. I hope you give it a try.
If you like apple cobbler / pie, you're gonna love this:
ZUCCHINI COBBLER
Ingredients:
8 cups chopped seeded peeled zucchini (about 3 pounds)
2/3 cup lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
CRUST:
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1-1/2 cups cold butter, cubed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Directions
In a large saucepan over medium-low heat, cook and stir zucchini and lemon juice for 15-20 minutes or until zucchini is tender. Add the sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg; simmer 1 minute longer. Remove from the heat; set aside.
For crust, combine the flour and sugar in a bowl; cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir 1/2 cup into zucchini mixture. Press half of remaining crust mixture into a greased 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan. Spread zucchini over top; crumble remaining crust mixture over zucchini. Sprinkle with cinnamon.
Bake at 375° for 35-40 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Yield: 16-20 servings.
(I always have trouble signing into my google account to post so am posting anonymous.
gina
www.athomemyway.blogspot.com
I love them as well and add some mozzarella with my parm and do bread crumbs instead of flour. Soak the zucchini and salt together first and squeeze out the excess water in a cheese cloth and you won't have any runnyness issues. Or you can do it they way you listed and live happily ever after that way.
Yummy! Thanks for the recipe :O)
Christi jo
Thank you Gina~I will definitely try it! I really do WANT to like zucchini...:)
Great recipes. You guys are zucchini pros. I picked up some zucchini brownies at out local farmers market to feed to grandkids who are in that no veggie phase. After eating two I felt pretty proud of my sneakiness when the 6 yr old said. "Yaya, those were good for having vegetables in them "
She had read the label.
I can't wait to try this! We really like zucchini but after a while you get tired of eating it the same old way! Thanks for sharing!
Hoppin' over...
Thanks for the gluten-free recipe!
They look yummy!
Have you ever tried roasting them in the oven with some olive oil, garlic and salt? Dee-lish...
Great recipe thanks for sharing! I'd like to dehydrate some for over the winter, but this year we only planted 2 squashes and pulled them up early since they had taken over the entire garden. Everything else was getting choked out. Hopefully next year we'll plant a few more. Followed from the barn hop
One of our favorite uses for extra zucchini is to make a puree(I just cut in half and bake, the peels slip right off.) and freeze it in one cup portions. We add it to sauces and soups. It makes a great substitution for broth in casseroles.
Well, I'm going to try them! Some neat ideas in the comments too.
We have squash bugs that take our plants early...but we eat these, call the zucchini pancakes. I really like 'poorman's crabcakes' which use zucchini instead of crabmeat.
Your zucchini fritters look yummy. But I have to say I love zucchini cooked just about any way you think of:) When my kids were little I used to slice the zucchini so they looked like pickle spears. I'd coat them in a little olive oil, dried dill weed and garlic and broil them. My kids loved them. They thought they were eating dill pickles.
Very funny! These sound yummy. Thank you for sharing.
~Lynn
Thank you very much for the recipe....I was just going to post a "help me!" on my blog for zucchini recipes. Found you over at Mama Tea's A Farmish Kind of Life. Look'n forward to some back-reading!
Carolyn Renee @ Krazo Acres
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