Plant a zucchini and feed the world, as the saying goes.
Since we grow everything organically, we never seem to know if we will lose all of our zucchini early in the season or late in the season or if it will even make it long enough for a harvest! But this year we have an abundance. We never know how long it will continue to come into the house before the squash bugs take over so we want to get the very best out of it while it is here, and also have some to use for the winter.
If you aren't growing your own zucchini you can likely find some at your local farmer's market. If you are able, buy up a bunch of it and use these ideas to eat, cook and preserve your zucchini while it is at its prime!
FREEZE IT!
One of the quickest, easiest ways to preserve zucchini is to shred it (we use a food processor to speed this up, but a cheese grater will also work.) and then put 2 cups of shreds into a freezer bag, flatten and freeze! All winter long we then have bags of zucchini to use to make zucchini bread or to toss into lasagna or spaghetti recipes.
This is a great way to use those zucchini that get missed in the garden, you know the type, you just didn't see it for a couple of days and now it is larger than your arm!? Those make great shredded bags that can turn into zucchini bread.
SAUTE OR GRILL IT
We enjoy slicing the zucchini thinly and tossing it into some onion and butter, frying it until lightly brown. We eat a LOT of both yellow squash and zucchini this way. You can also toss it into any of your favorite pasta dishes.
NEED MORE IDEAS? Here is a wonderful list of ways to preserve or cook with your abundance of zucchini.
Preserving Recipes
Dessert/Breakfast Recipes Zucchini Brownies from Crazy for Crust Zucchini Breakfast Casserole from Simply Recipes Side Dish Recipes Roasted Garlic-Parmesan Zucchini, Squash and Tomatoes from Cooking Classy Zucchini Tots from 31 Daily
Main Dish Recipes