Too Much Zucchini? 5 Amazing Ways To Use It Up
If you’re sick of the same tired old zucchini recipes, don’t fret! These will inspire you to use the veggie up in no time!
If your garden—or one of your sneaky neighbors—has left you with more zucchini than you know what to do with, and you’re sick of those same tired old recipes, don’t fret! These unique zucchini recipes will inspire you to use up those courgettes* in no time!
*Courgette is just French for zucchini — slip that word into your vocabulary when adding these recipes to your rotation, and your family will be none the wiser!
Zucchini Burgers
Ingredients
- 1 large zucchini, grated
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 carrot, grated
- 1 egg
- ⅓ cup chopped onionGround pepper to taste
- ¼ cup whole wheat flour
- ¼ cup crumbled feta
Instructions
- Grate the zucchini and add salt. Wait five minutes, then wrap the zucchini with cheesecloth or paper towels and squeeze out excess moisture.
- Add drained zucchini to a large bowl and combine with carrot, egg, onion, and pepper.
- Stir in whole wheat flour and fold in feta cheese until it is evenly distributed.
- Coat a frying pan with olive oil or nonstick spray.
- Divide the mixture into five patties (or 10 small “sliders,” if preferred).
- Cook over medium heat for 4-5 minutes per side, until golden brown.
Zucchini Chili
Ingredients
- 6 cups zucchini, grated or diced, whichever you prefer
- 1 cups celery, sliced
- 1 med. onion, chopped
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 15-oz. can tomato sauce
- 2 cups water
- 28-oz. can whole tomatoes & juice
- 2-3 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt
- 3 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper
- 1/2 c. pitted ripe olives, sliced
- 15-oz. can kidney beans
- 1 c. fresh, sliced mushrooms
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, sauté grated zucchini, celery, and onion in hot oil for about 6 minutes, until celery is just tender.
- Add tomato sauce, water, tomatoes (with juice), chili powder, garlic salt, salt, sugar, and pepper.
- Simmer slowly, uncovered, for 90 minutes.
- Add olives, kidney beans, and mushrooms.
- Simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes and serve.
Zucchini Brownies
Ingredients
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups shredded zucchini
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- ¼ cup butter
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- ¼ cup milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour a 9” x 13” baking pan.
- In a large bowl, combine the oil, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla and mix until well blended.
- Combine the flour, ½ cup cocoa, baking soda, and salt and add to the sugar mixture. Fold in the zucchini and walnuts. Note: Batter will seem dry, but don’t worry! The zucchini provides moisture when baking! If you want to add water, add by tablespoonfuls but batter should be dry.
- Spread the batter evenly into the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until brownies spring back when gently touched.
- To make the frosting, melt together the 6 tablespoons of cocoa and butter; set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, blend together the confectioners’ sugar, milk and ½ teaspoon vanilla. Stir in the cocoa mixture.
- Spread over cooled brownies before cutting into squares.
Slow Cooker Zucchini Lasagna
Ingredients
- 15 (oz) whole milk or part-skim ricotta
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for top
- 1 cup frozen spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed of all liquid
- 4 cups of your favorite jarred Italian pasta sauce or homemade
- 4 medium garden zucchini, sliced ⅛” thick lengthwise on a mandolin
- 6-8 lasagna noodles, uncooked
- 16 oz part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded
- 2 tablespoons garden-fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, plus more for garnish.
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- In a medium bowl mix ricotta, egg, Parmesan cheese, spinach, parsley, and salt & pepper. Stir well and set it aside.
- Lightly coat the inside of the slow cooker with cooking spray. Ladle about 1 cup of tomato sauce on the bottom of the slow cooker and spread it around to coat.
- Place a single layer of noodles on top of the sauce, breaking some if needed to fit in the slow cooker. Layer about a cup of the ricotta mixture on top of the noodles, then top with ⅓ of the cheese, sauce, then zucchini slices.
- Repeat the layers until all your ingredients are all used up, ending with sauce and an extra sprinkling of Parmesan cheese.
- Cover and cook on HIGH for 2-½ to 3 hours. Turn the slow cooker to WARM and let stand for 30 minutes. This will allow the liquid to be absorbed. Cut with a knife and spoon onto plates. Sprinkle with fresh parsley or basil. Serves 4-6 people.
- Note: You can make this dish low-carb by omitting the lasagna noodles.
Zoodles with Pesto
Ingredients
- 4 small zucchini, ends trimmed
- 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
- 2 cloves garlic
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper, to taste
- sundried tomatoes, or cherry or grape tomatoes, optional
Instructions
- Create zoodles from the zucchini using your preferred method.
- Combine the basil and garlic in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Using a steady stream, slowly add in the olive oil while the food processor is still on. Scrape the sides of the processor and add the lemon juice and Parmesan cheese and pulse until blended. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Toss zucchini noodles and pesto until well coated. Top with tomatoes.
Weigh In
What’s your favorite zucchini recipe? Tell us in the comments below!
Here’s a great way to spiralize your zucchini without a fancy machine!
Jaime McLeod
Jaime McLeod is a longtime journalist who has written for a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including MTV.com. She enjoys the outdoors, growing and eating organic food, and is interested in all aspects of natural wellness.
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I love good old batter fried, but hubby has to watch carbs now. Have been cooking it the same way without batter, tossing in some sliced onion and sprinkle with garlic powder. Almost don’t miss the batter, almost.
From my cousin—- Zucchini Casserole (even those who don’t like zucchini love this one!)
Slice up about 2 pounds of zucchini and boil in water (uncovered) with a cup of chopped onion for about 10 mins. Drain. In a separate bowl, empty a box of Stove Top Stuffing Mix (chicken flavor) and mix with 1/2 cup melted butter. Reserve 2/3 cup stuffing mixture and set aside. Stir 1 can cream of chicken soup, 1 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup to 1 cup shredded carrot (your preference) and the cooked zucchini/onion mix into the remaining stuffing mixture. Grease a 9×13 pan and dump it all into pan, then top with the reserved stuffing mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 mins. or until bubbly and golden brown on top. SOOOO good!
Thank you, Debbie, this sounds wonderful!
Using a spirlizer, make noodles out of the zucchini. Cook noodles until tender. Add your favorite sauce. Yummy
Zucchini Pizza Boats
Cut zucchini in halves. Add pizza sauce, pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 – 30 minutes or until zucchini is tender.
PIZZA SQUASH CASSEROLE
8-10 baby squash
1 medium onion
1/2 green pepper
1 can mushrooms
1 can sliced black olives
1 TBSP minced garlic
2 cans pizza sauce
1 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp celery salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp marjoram
1 & 1/2 lbs ground beef
1 c grated parmesan
8 oz shredded mozzarella
8 oz shredded cheddar
Chop squash very small, set aside. Chop green pepper and onion, set aside. Drain sliced olives and mushrooms. In large skillet, cook ground beef, green pepper, onion and mined garlic. Add the seasonings and herbs. Drain fat. In 6qt roaster or crockpot, layer half of squash, half of mushrooms, half of olives, half of beef mixture, empty one can of pizza sauce, half of parmesan, half of mozzarella and half of cheddar. Repeat layers. Cover, in crockpot, cook on high for 2-3 hours until squash is tender. In roaster, bake at 350° for 1 & 1/2 hrs until squash is tender.
Hi there, i recently ate at a raw food resty, and they served raw zucchini “noodles”. They were spaghetti-like, clear(ish?), i dont want to say rubbery, but they had a texture somewhat similiar to real noodles. Any idea how to make these? Im gonna go out on a limb and say they arent cooked. Thanks for any help! 🙂
That’s new to me, Kat. I’m familiar with spaghetti squash, but not zucchini noodles.
You just need to buy a spiralizer. You can get them pretty much anywhere these days.
You can also puree any raw zucs and freeze it to late use in soups as a filler.
OMG! No one can remain sickly if they follow recipes sucn as featured in FA. It’s like starting life anew; to now be growing up in the countrysides. It’s way-time to erase ‘junk’ from our future citizens’ minds when snacks can be as good as these are. I certainly thank the Almanac for listing them.
I am new at grating or preparing zucchini for recipes, how is this done?
Leftover Garden Vegetable Stir-Fry
2 small zucchini, sliced
2 small yellow squash (crook neck), sliced
1 small green pepper (or a mix of different colors), slivered
1 bunch green onions, chopped
a handful of button mushrooms, sliced
saute in a LARGE amount of bacon fat, ghee or butter (this will also be the “dressing” for the dish, so you can use a mixture of fats if you wish, just make them healthy fats, not canola oil or corn oil or any of that junk). Some people like olive oil – I don’t care for it unless I can find the cloudy, unrefined stuff.
While that is slowly sauteeing, get some water boiling and cook up about 6-8 oz. of spaghetti noodles. When they are done, drain and rinse them, drain some more and then add the noodles to the stir-fry pan.
Add 1 tablespoon Italian Spices (premixed or your own blend: oregano, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, black pepper, fennel and whatever else you like). Toss the whole works together and eat.
* You can also add into the saute mix some julienned sliced of chicken breast and fry the whole works until the chicken is good and done. Sometimes I also toss in leftover roast beef or pork roast, or whatever. We are not vegetarian so I usually add some sort of meat. We do not buy chicken from the grocery store, so I only have chicken on hand when we can buy it from the local Hutterite Colony.
Zucchini Salad
2 zucchini cubed
2 yellow summer squash cubed
1/4 cup feta cheese crumbled
Salt and Pepper to taste
Olive oil
1/2 Lime
1/4 tsp minced garlic
Mix 1/4 cup olive oil with 1/2 lime, salt, pepper, minced garlic
Pour into cubed zucchini and squash. Mix well.
A very refreshing dish. You may add a long grain rice if desired
Zuchinni Bread using honey is so good. another recipe i have is saute some onion and a bell pepper or a hot one. slice up several zucchinni and cook with onion and pepper . when its done drain a can of whole can corn and pour over it.or use freash cor,when its heated ,pour chedder cheese over top ,put lid on turn off burner.
One of my favorites, Zucchini Rounds:
1/3 C Bisquick Mix, 1/4 C Grated Parmesan Cheese, 1/8 tsp pepper, 2 eggs slightly beaten, 2 C shredded zucchini (don’t peel), 2 Tbls butter. Stir Bisquick, cheese and pepper, stir in beaten eggs until mixture is moistened, fold in zucchini. Melt butter in frying pan cook like pancakes, serve with butter and garlic salt. I even like mine with maple syrup. If large zucchini seed it first.