A friend gave me a huge zucchini that is about 18" long and almost 6" across at the widest point. It's at least 2 pounds. Anyone have a good, relatively healthy, and most importantly - relatively easy! - recipe for this beast? I'd prefer not to make 14 loaves of zucchini bread or to eat steamed zucchini a week straight.
Thanks!
Wow - these are great ideas! Tonight I tried the stuffed zucchini recipe that Lynn provided (thanks, Lynn!) and it was spectacular. The skin ended up very tough (I didn't add enough water to the baking pan - it all evaporated and I didn't notice), but we just cut the skin off as we ate it. The stuffing mixture would be great in peppers, too! I'll definitely buy more zucchini to try the zucchini crusted pizza and some of the other recipes, too! Thanks, everyone!
Zucchini crusted pizza! It is so good! Google the recipe from the Moosewood cookbook. It's more like a zucchini/pizza casserole, but it is so yummy!
You can shred it and freeze it in small amounts. I have some in my freezer, shredded and measured, ready to put in a zucchini bread recipe that we like. I love the Paula Dean recipe for zucchini bread, btw.
Vegetable lasagne is really good. I don't have a recipe but I have eaten some with zucchini in it. Delicious!
Cut the zucchini into four inch long lenghtwise slices. Put olive oil and garlic in a pan. Sprinkle the zucchini slices liberally with paprika. Saute until all sides are well covered with mixture. Carefully remove slices and place on a baking tray. Finish cooking by baking in the oven. If you have any leftovers you can freeze them once they've cooled in a ziplock bag.
Zucchini fritters. Every time I make them, I never have enough to satisfy everyone, even if I make dozens.
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/zucchini_fritters/
You can throw other veggies in the mix, too, like carrots or potatoes/sweet potatoes, corn, or mashed up leftover beans.
We purposely let a few of ours get big so we can stuff and bake them... they are AMAZING that way. You can put just about anything in them, so you can make them healthy or not. ;) Here are 2 recipe.. you can change it up anyway you want..
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/stuffed-zucchini-2/detail.aspx
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/stuffed_zucchini_with_tu...
I like to shred it and freeze it in 2 cup amounts (that's what my bread recipe calls for) for zucchini bread. You can also throw it in spaghetti, soups, and I found some great recipes online. We also like breaded, fried zucchini-just made some last night in fact.
I really like freezing it for bread and baking lots of bread during the holidays: parties, work gifts, childrens' teacher gifts (we all have enough mugs and pretty sure we all love food. LOL)
Shred some for zucchini bread
Shred some for zucchini panckaes (add what other indgredients you might like)
Thickly slice some, dip them in egg and bread crumbs and saute them in olive oil
Lasagna sounds yummy, too.
My parents used to give these to us along with a paring knife and let us carve to our hearts content. They're just not good for eating at this size.
I just used one of these up over about 4 meals.
Put diced zucchini in a huge pot of spaghetti sauce. Freeze extra sauce for quick future meals.
Dice and mix with rice, beans, shredded cheese, olives, avocado, and salsa for a healthy vegetarian meal.
Put it in lasagna!
Veggie soup.
I just wish the squirrels would quit eating my little zucchinis so that I could actually grow one. My neighbor gave me the one above.
Zuchini boats. Cut the zuchini in half and core out the seeds. Then fill the cavity with rice-a-roni and hamburger and stick it in the oven until the zuchini is tender. I forget teh specifics, but my mom used to do this all the time. It was the only way we kids would eat zuchini after a while. You can also grate cheese over it.
