Zucchini is sold all year round, but the season for these vegetables runs from July to October. Young zucchini are ideal for stuffing, frying, they are great in salads, both traditional vegetable and warm. Larger fruits are good for stews and pancakes. An exotic dish - zucchini jam, which can be added with lemon and ginger flavor.
Fried zucchini
The easiest way to prepare zucchini is to fry them in a pan or grill. Before grilling, thin slices of zucchini are lightly sprinkled with olive oil, fried, and served with various sauces. To pan the zucchini, also cut them into slices. You can dip them in tempura or batter and deep-fry them, or simply dip them in flour and salt. If you are avoiding extra calories but still want fried courgettes, you can cook them without flour. Take:
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil;
- ½ teaspoon of red pepper flakes;
- 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan;
- salt and ground pepper.
Chop the garlic. Heat olive oil in a wide skillet and sauté the garlic along with the red pepper flakes for 30-60 seconds. If you don't like the metallic taste of overcooked garlic, remove it from the pan. Cut the zucchini into slices and fry in portions until golden brown on both sides. Serve sprinkled with grated Parmesan cheese.
To make pancakes, muffins or bread from zucchini, rub vegetables, squeeze out excess liquid and add to the dough.
Baked zucchini
Zucchini is baked in slices, in addition, they are made of "boats", stuffed with meat or vegetarian mince and also cooked in the oven. The fried and baked mixture of vegetables - courgettes, eggplants, peppers and onions - makes the famous French dish ratatouille. And for a healthy diet, zucchini sticks are suitable. For them you will need:
- 2 young zucchini;
- 1 egg white;
- ¼ glass of milk;
- ½ cup grated Parmesan;
- ½ cup of bread crumbs.
Cut the washed and dried zucchini lengthwise, with "sticks" about 3 centimeters long and 1 centimeter wide, like French fries. Whisk the egg white with milk, add cheese and bread crumbs. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 180 ° C. Dip each zucchini bite into the milk and egg mixture and place on a prepared baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Serve with thick yogurt.
Vegetable carpaccio can be made from raw zucchini by serving thin raw slices with vinaigar sauce.
Boiled zucchini
There is a lot of liquid in zucchini, so you should cook them either by steam or in a very small amount of liquid. You can make "noodles" from zucchini. To do this, the zucchini is cut lengthwise with a vegetable peeler into long strips. And boiled in salted water for a few minutes. These "noodles" can be put into a paste or a warm salad with it.
