Zucchini is one of the most prolific garden plants! These easy zucchini recipes will help you save money and give you lots of delicious ways to prepare it! My favorite is the homemade zucchini cake recipe! You can find this recipe in our Dining On A Dime Cookbook, Volume 1.
These easy zucchini recipes offer a variety of delicious options for side dishes, main courses, breads, and more, all starting with fresh garden zucchini! They’re quick and easy to make, providing a tasty way to use up all that extra zucchini!
A Zillion Zucchini?
by Tawra Kellam
So you have few zucchini left, huh? You’ve given bushel baskets full to all your friends and family. You’ve set buckets on the corner with a free sign. You’ve left anonymous “midnight zucchini deliveries” at all of your neighbor’s houses and they still aren’t gone. Now what do you do?
Here are a few ideas about how to use leftover garden zucchini along with a bunch of easy zucchini recipes that will help you make lots of delicious dishes from this very prolific garden plant!
Eazy Zucchini Tips:
- Zucchini can easily be frozen for the winter. Simply shred and bag into 1 – 2 cup servings. Use in breads, cakes or meat loaves
- Substitute shredded zucchini for half of the ground beef in Mexican recipes, spaghetti sauces, meat loaves or meatballs.
For more easy and delicious dinner recipes, check out our cookbooks:
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My sister-in-law made this zuchini recipe for dinner one night and we love it.
1 MED ZUCHINI SLICED
Other uses for zucchini:
Grill:
1) Brush with vegetable or canola oil and season as you wish and grill. This works especially well with forearm-sized zucchini that grew overnight. Slice 1/4″ thin lengthwise.
-or-
2) Slice vegetables and put in non-stick aluminum foil with a little butter, seasoning, in addition to zucchini, add bell peppers, carrots, and any other tasty vegetable
Microwave:
Use the Ziplock Zip-n-Steam bags. Slice 1/2 of a normal-sized zuccini 1/4″ thin along with 1/2 of a squash (or use a whole of either.) Slice one whole carrot, add broccoli, and sliced colorful bell pepper. Use 1 tbs butter, a little white pepper, garlic powder or 1 clove of freshly-pressed garlic, and a little salt or seasoned salt. Put in the microwave while the meat is resting. Cook for 4 minutes.
Pizza:
Add quarter slices of zucchini to homemade pizza. Even my husband who did not think he liked zucchini until he tried the above ways discovered that he really liked this. He would even ask for zucchini on his portion of the pizza. Great with slices of fresh tomato, onion, bell pepper, and pepperoni!
Zucchini and Tomatoes – canning:
A can of Del Monte Zucchini and Tomatoes at our store costs $2.29. That is about the same price as a large can of storebrand canned whole tomatoes. (I have not had enough tomatoes to can from our garden.)
Slice zucchini into 1/4″ slices, halved or less if you have forearm-sized zucchini. For larger zucchini, cut it in half lenghtwise and scrape out large seeds. If you have about 16 cups (roughly) of zucchini, use the following:
1-3 tbs of table salt over the zucchini. Let it set for 1 hour to soften. Drain water.
3 large cans of whole tomatoes. Crush into small bits with a potato masher or use your hands to make small.
Add 2 tsp salt, 3 tbs oregano, 2-3 tbs basil, 2-3 tbs garlic powder, pepper.
Bring to a boil
Add drained zucchini
Bring back to a boil + 30 seconds – 1 minute. Make sure to stir.
Put into sanitized canning jars.
Submerge in hot water bath for 15 minutes.
This recipe makes about 6 1/2 pints.
Zucchini and Squash Pickles – canning:
————————————–
8 cups of zucchini and squash (any combination you have) cut into 1/4″ half slices or smaller for jumbo zucchini and squash. (Scrape large seeds out of jumbo zucchini and squash. Small seeds are no problem.)
3/4 of an onion – diced (about 2 cups)
1-2 green bell pepper – diced
2 – 3 colorful bell peppers – diced
3 tbs table salt (add after above ingredients are ready)
Stir in the salt and mix the ingredients well. Let sit for 1 hour. Drain.
In large soup pot, mix:
1 c distilled vinegar
1 c cider vinegar (or 2 c total of distilled vinegar)
2 tsp mustard seed
2 tsp celery seed
3 c sugar
Bring ingredients in the pot to a boil. Stir to mix.
Add zucchini and squash mixture. Bring to a boil. Boil for 30 seconds – 1 minute.
Put mixture in sterilized canning jars.
Put jars in hot water bath for 15 minutes.
Best after a couple of days and then refrigerated. Great with sandwiches or on black-eyed peas. It is a beautiful, colorful addtion to the dinner table. Makes about 5 pints.
This recipe multiplies well for bumper crops. Great way to use those large squash and zucchini that appear overnight.
While the zucchini and tomatoes sounds delicious, that would not be safe to can in a hot water bath. At the very least, it would require pressure canning for a minimum of 55 minutes at 11 lbs, which is the processing time for zucchini. You do not have enough acid to water bath them safely, even just straight tomatoes with an added acidulant are barely acid enough to water bath safely, but you’re upping the ph by adding all that zucchini.
We frequently make both zucchini relish and zucchini salsa, both of which are capable of being water bathed safely due to added acid (in both cases, vinegar).
We had this over the weekend, and I loved it. Take a large zucchini, slice lengthwise. scoop out the seeds, making a “trench”. brown 1 lb. hamburger, put in 1 cup salsa, mexican cheese blend to taste. Bake at 350 til zuccini is tender, but not mushy. Put another layer of cheese just before removing from oven. slice to serve. we had buscuits, corn as a side. I think it would be great as a vegetarian dish, filled, with refried beans (with/or without chiles), whatever cheese you like, and maybe black olive slices, mushrooms, green pepper,etc.
This was a keeper for our family — Made more than enough for 6 –
I have become a big fan of zucchini over the last 2 years.
Try slicing the zucchini length wise, drizzle with olive oil, layer with fresh tomato slices and top with grated Romano cheese. Bake at 350F for 35 minutes or until tender but still a bit firm. Add some fresh basil at the last 10 minutes or top when removed. Yum!
I make a dish with pasta and zucchini. Grate Zucchini, fry some garlic in olive oil, add zucchini,cook for a few minutes, toss with pasta, add handful of parmesan cheese and serve
Zucchini Jam
6 cups shredded peeled zucchini
6 cups sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 can (15 oz) crushed pineapple with juice
2 packages orange jello gelatin
In large pot combine zucchini, sugar, lemon juice, pineapple with juice. Bring to a boil, cook stirring often at a full boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in gelatin. Spoon into jelly jars. Process 10 minutes in hot water bath. Store in the refrigerator. 7 ½ pints
I have use also strawberry jello gelatin
This will not last long. Great gifts.
Polly: what size Jello package do you use: the large or the small, for your jam?
Sorry, I use the small packages of jello…Thanks
The zucchini jam sounds interesting!
I can’t seem to grow many cucumbers here, so I use zucchini for both relish and bread and butter pickles.
Too much zucchini…..
I put my veggie into a food processor (peel those bigger than the little ones we love so much to keep the flavor bland). Liquify and bag in 1C quantities–rebag many into a larger bag ( I vacuum sealed the big bag) and use in place of dairy milk to reduce calories. Works very well.
I would like to make a vegetarian lasagna using eggplant and zucchini. Do I need to cook them a little before I layer them in the pan. I plan to use some tomato sauce, ricotta & cottage cheese and lasagna noodles but didn’t know where in the layers to put the veggies and if they need to be partially cooked first. Any help is appreciated. I’d like to make the dish this weekend since my zucchini have been waiting for a few days. Thanks.
Maggie you don’t need to cook the zucchini or eggplant first just slice them very thin. You can pretty much layer them how you like. For every recipe I have read they have layered them differently. I would just layer the noodles, sauce, veggies, cheese but like I said everyone did them a different way so I don’t the layer makes a difference. I do usually end with cheese sprinkled on top no matter what kind of lasagna I make just for looks.
not sure if this is helpful but I was reading a recipe for zuchini lasagna (low carb) so no noodles and a couple people wrote that they sliced the veg to the size wanted then dropped into boiling water to soften them.
The reason was if cooked they came out the texture of noodles and were less noticeable.
I have never made anything much with zuchini but want to try this as Don likes lasagna and I thought this might be the way to go.
Will also try the jam if I can get zuchini at a decent price.
Donna and Liz
Your recipes sound great. Do you peel the zucchini before baking? Thanks.
You can or leave it whichever you prefer.
went to the gardener who sells his produce in the village next to ours yesterday and asked if they had zuchini. she went to the garden and came back with 10 nice size ones. I asked how much and she said $5. so I took them all. it was the last in the garden.
went to the grocery store and they had some sick looking ones for $1.49 a lb. I figure I got about 10 lbs so got a pretty good deal.
have enough for the jam and a zuchini lasagna and maybe double the jam recipe by adding something else to it.
so as soon as I go to get groceries tonight I can start on using it.
thanks for the jam recipe it is one I have used for other fruits so no problem.
yesterday I canned 20 500ml jars of peaches with no sugar and had enough for 6 250ml jars of jam. made with sugar free jello and the peaches only. So a good productive day, I think.
can’t wait for pears and plums now.
I add zucchini to other vegetables to make them go further, like corn, broccoli, okra, cauliflower. Use raw in mixed salads with tomatoes, onion, peppers. This mixture works well cooked with sausage and topped with cheese.
A low fat recipe we like for two:
2 medium zucchini
1/3 cup diced onion (about one small)
5 slices of turkey bacon cooked until crisp and crumbled
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese.
(1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
(2) Cut zucchini in half lengthwise . With a metal spoon scoop out most of the insides and put them into a small skillet . Transfer the zucchini shells to a 8 by 8 baking dish with 1/4 cup water.
(3) Pace the skillet over medium heat medium heat, and stir in the onions and bacon bits. Cook about 3 minutes, or until softened. Stir in cheese until melted.
(4) Remove from heat and fill zucchini shells.
(5) Bake in preheated onion for 12-15, or longer if you want softer shells.
Correction: that should read in step number 3: the onions and bacon bits. Would appreciate if you could change this prior to posting.Thanks.
Fabulous! Great timing, as I’ve been buying zucchini at the local farmers markets. All these recipes sound delicious!
My neighbour showed me how to dehydrate zucchini and gave me a sample. Just wash the zucchini(peel and all), slice off the blossom ends and slice into wheels. Lay out in a single layer on your dehydrator racks and dry until crisp. Store in an airtight container until ready to use. I have always added these to soups or meat sauces, but last year, at Christmas, I ate a few like potato chips, using low fat salad dressing as a dip. You can’t eat as many as you would potato chips, (they are quite filling), but it was a nice guilt-free alternative. Dried zucchini has a slightly sweet taste to it.
Haven’t tried dehydrating zucchini yet but will have to. I love to dehydrate things so thanks for the tip Mary Jane.
Yes, it is an other kitchen gadget, but we use it a lot:
a sturdy spiralizer.
Now we make Zoodles instead of Noodles.
low carb, gluten- etc free.
Try with any pastasauce, just remember there is more liquid from the zucchini.
What type of frosting do you recommend for the zucchini cake? I eat a lot of eggplant especially on Mondays. Its a bit tricky washing the zucchini; any ideas on taking the grit off? Thank you.
I just use buttercream or cream cheese.
I need to know if anyone has shredded, then froze the shredded zucchini for future baking.
I have a ton of zucchini right now, given to me by some wonderful friends. I love
to bake with it, but I can’t bake ten zucchini cakes today!
Yes you can grate it up and freeze it raw Jaan.
I always set aside 1 cup shredded zuchinni to freeze b c you can use it in zuchhinni bread or muffins in future or add to soup and casseroles. Super easy! Only drain off excess liquid aside if using for baking! That water is for soup or vegetables! Blessings,grace in vt!
Zucchini also dehydrates well. Use small ones, and slice thinly and dry until fairly brittle. Store in a cool dry place. I especially love adding them to soups and stews through the winter (if I don’t eat all the zucchini “chips” before then… they get so sweet!).