I love zucchini. It is a magical vegetable eaten as either a sweet or savory for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack...you name it. Not only that, but it is super easy to grow and pretty abundant. With that being said we have been eating our fair share of zucchini this summer.
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| zucchini plant from my garden |
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| zucchini chips |
One of my favorite Zucchini treats of the summer is zucchini chips. They are so easy to make and are a great snack! We used our mandolin to slice them (my husband jumps at any opportunity to use the mandolin. I don't get what the excitement is about, but I am happy for the help). I didn't want them sliced too thin so I would say that they were about as thick as a Ritz cracker - is that a 1/4 inch? To make them: 1) line a baking sheet with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 225. 2) Align your zucchini on the parchment paper and using a pastry brush and brush a light amount of olive oil on each slice (do not over oil or you will have some soggy chips). 3) Sprinkle a light amount of sea salt on top of the slices. My zucchini took about 3 hours to cook, but I would set your timer to 2 hours and check on your zucchini. I also like to rotate my baking sheet midway through cooking. 4) When they are done and cooled peel them off the paper and toss them in a bowl.
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| zucchini fritters |
We are also big fans of zucchini fritters in our house! My kids think that they are fantastic (which they pretty much feel about anything that is fried) and they are eating vegetables. I used a zucchini and summer squash fritter recipe that I found on Pinterest. Side note - Pinterest is my favorite time suck ever (well that and the Real Housewives). I could spend days, weeks - who am I kidding I could spend months surfing Pinterest. Back to the fritters...I have made them a few times this summer and was able to make them gluten free by subbing flour for gf panko (1/2 cup) and quinoa flour (2 tbsp). Note: stop the urge to add an extra egg - do not do it! I made the mistake of doing this on one batch and the fritters tasted a bit like a scrambled egg patty with zucchini. If you get the egg right - these are awesome.
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| zucchini cake |
One of my other favorite uses for zucchini is zucchini cake. It seems strange that I am a fan of zucchini cake, but not carrot cake - right? Kind of like those people who hate tomatoes, but love ketchup. Nonetheless I had a hankering for some zucchini cake. In searching to fulfill my craving I found the best ever gf zucchini cake recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks Artisinal Gluten Free Cooking. This cookbook is fantastic although I must admit that I am not a fan of their suggested flour mix and tend to sub other gf flour combinations.
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| zucchini choc chip doughnuts |
I also had a few zucchini failures in all of my zucchini cooking endeavors. I would get into all of the details, but they weren't good. Just ask my family who were subjected to these dishes.
Zucchini tots - burnt
Zucchini choc chip doughnuts - soggy (they don't even look good - right?)
Zucchini cheesy rice - eh
The amazing thing is that is almost October and I still have more zucchini coming. Now what to make next? Hmmm....
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