This time of year many of us have squash coming out our ears. Have you been bombed with bags of zucchini yet? Are you wondering just what to do with all those crooknecks? Did you pick up too many of these cucurbits because they were on sale?
If you have a favorite recipe or advice on freezing and canning squash, here’s your chance to share it – and share some blog lovin’.
Through this Saturday write up a post about your favorite squash recipe and link it here in the comment section. If you don’t have a blog feel free to share a short recipe here in the comment section. Here’s where the blog lovin’ comes in. For each of you that responds I challenge you to visit at least two other recipe posts and comment there. Perhaps you’ll find a new favorite place to visit and learn and share in the meantime!
Here’s one to get started with over at my blog, Unearthing This Life.
I really look forward to all these recipes! Let’s have fun. Link away!
Ohh what fun! I’m going to have to look through my recipes…great idea! Kim
Here’s a post with lots of links for zucchini recipes!
http://thelocalcook.com/2010/07/27/what-do-i-do-with-too-much-zucchini/
Last year we had so much zucchini and since it was my first year of gardening I didn’t want to waste anything. So for my overabundance of squash, I shredded the squash in my food processor, put 2 cups in plastic bags, then froze them until needed. I put the zucchini in soups, stews, sauces, meatloaf and meatballs, anywhere I thought they might fit. We still have frozen zucchini AND patty pan squash.
I also process my squash and freeze it, but I don’t just shred it. I use the processor to create disks, or shredded, or I cut it up by hand in chunks. I like my squash to have different textures, depending on the use.
I have also baked up 12 loaves of zucchini bread this season and I kept one loaf out for this week’s breakfast, I used one for a potluck, one for a housewarming gift, and the rest went into the freezer for when abundance is less. The recipe I used is here: http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2007/07/24/a-solution-to-the-zucchini-epidemic/
Finally, I grilled some of the squash along with my increasing over abundance of veggies with a little olive oil and fresh herbs (I personally like rosemary and thyme), some sea salt, they’re amazing hot, cold, or in a homemade tortilla as a wrap. Homemade tortilla recipe here: http://www.grouprecipes.com/82095/spinach-tortillas.html (although I have been substituting kale and beet greens as they are what is currently ready in my garden).
My favorite (and my family’s) is mock apple cobbler.
I served it to them telling them it was apple cobbler and they ate it and told me that was really good apple cobbler. They fell on the floor when I told them it was zucchini cobbler. It’s very easy to make.
8 cups zucchini (uses a lot! woohoo)
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp flour
1 dash salt
1 tsp cinnamon’
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 10 oz can of crushed pineapple
1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 to 1 cup butter, melted. (I used 1/2 cup and it worked well)
1/2 cup nuts chopped (optional)
8 cups zucchini peeled, seeded and cut into 1/2 slices. Cook in boiling water for appx 3 minutes, drain and put in cool water for 5 minutes.
Drain zucchini and add sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon,
cream of tarter and lemon juice.
Stir well.
Add pineapple and juice from can
stir well gently
Put into a greased 13×9 pan
spread cake mix (dry) over top
drizzle butter over cake mix and sprinkle nuts on top
bake at 350 degree over for 60 mins.
This sounds deviously tasty!
This is easily my favorite thing to do with squash in the summer.
http://pinchofthis.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/summer-bread-salad-with-zucchini-tomatoes-and-feta-cheese-macsac/
These are all outstanding so far. So many great ideas.
I shred and freeze all that we cant eat fresh. I add it to pretty much anything during the winter, soups, breads, cookies….
What we don’t eat before the next season, I give to my chickens in frozen form on very hot summer days. They love it and I feel better that it didn’t go to waste.
It doesn’t use a lot of zucchini, but it sure is yummy, simple, and good: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Shaved-Zucchini-Salad-with-Parmesan-Pine-Nuts-360251
I love the ideas about shredding the squash to add to other meals throughout the year. I usually prefer my squash with a bite and not mushy and so I’ve never frozen extras. This sounds like the perfect way to NOT waste!
What a good idea! I’ll put a post up on my blog today or tomorrow with a squash recipe I tried over this past weekend. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else comes up with.
So far not a good squash year for me
Planted my zukes quite late so no fruit yet, and the Walthams and Pumpkins don’t have any fruit at all (in fact I dreamed fruit for them last night). Winter Melons just started flowering too. I do, however, look to have lots of cucumber– here’s a wonderful summer refresher:
*Cucumber-mint smoothie*
One large cucumber, seeded, cubed and frozen
coupla Tablespoons to >1/4 cup mint syrup, depending on how sweet you like your smoothies
1 cup raw milk yogurt (okay, any plain yogurt, but the raw stuff is amazing)
1/2 cup whole milk
honey to taste, optional (again, if you like your smoothies very sweet)
To make the mint syrup, combine a large handful of mint in 1 1/2 cups of water, 1 teaspoon lemon juice and 3/4 cup sugar. Bring to a boil and reduce to 1 cup. Strain (and discard the greens). Add a few drops of mint extract to punch up the flavor.
Put all ingredients in a blender and pulse until combined, then blend on liquify until completely smooth. If you freeze the cucumber it’s nice and cold without having to bulk it up with ice.
I had to pick up an acorn squash this week – I was craving your risotto recipe the other day!
How fun this is!!!
I also shred and freeze zucchini in 2 cup batches for use in veggie burgers (my recipe contribution – http://missalayneoussprouts.blogspot.com/2010/08/zucchini-zucchini-everywhere.html), zucchini breads, or adding into sauces.
I also like to make a veggie sauce with all the not so perfect veggies from my garden – half tomatoes, half other stuff – then I can it. Zucchini plays a big part in that one.
Sadly, I’ve only managed to get one Zucchini plant to last this year and it’s limping along and hasn’t fruited yet. I have, however, been able to get quite a few at the farm stands and farmer’s markets…including a few Pattypans, which I love to cook with because of their uniqueness and sweetness.
Here’s a post I did about Pattypans in a foil packet on the grill. It also works, of course, with zucchini Great way to enjoy sweet steamed veggies without heating-up a pot of water or the house:
http://www.eatmyasparagus.com/2010/07/nice-side-dish-pattypan-squash.html
I’ve also made a HUGE batch of “Zesty Zucchini Relish” from the Ball Complete Book of Home Canning. My wife absolutely loves it and puts it on everything–even sliced turkey sandwiches. Here’s another blog I found that has reprinted the recipe:
http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com/2009/08/zesty-zucchini-relish.html
I used the food processor, so mine’s more finely chopped like supermarket relish than the one in the photo on that blog. I also omitted the turmeric (because I didn’t have any), the horseradish, and the jalapeno (because I wanted sweet relish, not hot). Also, friends and family that enjoyed last year’s batch requested it a little thicker/stiffer this year, so I cooked it a bit longer.
[...] 7, 2010 by mangochild Whirliegig from Unearthing This Life posted a “Squash ‘n’ Blog” swap on Not Dabbling in Normal a couple of days ago, and since using squash is right there on my [...]
Love this idea! My husband doesn’t like zucchini and squash, so I have to find creative ways to get him to eat it. I use it a lot in tacos/quesadillas as filling or mixed into stir fry.
I just saw this recipe and want to modify it: http://sproutedkitchen.com/?p=1807
I’ve also been eating squash for breakfast, and for dinner with goat cheese.
well. If any of you want to leave a bag or 2 of zuc on my door step – I would take it. My spring zuc didn’t produce enough to worry about having too many. We ate it faster than it was product. Now I have getting ready to plant the fall garden and have HIGH HIGH hopes for more zucchini.
After reading the comments it seems I have done a few of the other tricks. Grilling is the immediate favorite along with roasting with other veggies. Also, shredded & frozen in baggies for soups or breads. Canned Spicy Zucchini Relish and also Zucchini Chutney. I am happy to say we are still eating the canned things, but will be out soon and hope this fall garden brings me oodles of zucchini. Emily in So. TX
Boo. So sorry you’ve had a bad way to go this year. I’m hoping your fall garden does much better!
I’m glad, looking through these comments, that I’m not the only person who sometimes has trouble with summer squash. I nursed my tomatoes through last year’s late blight. I’ve defied zones and soil types to grow crazy things when I lived in upstate New York.
But summer squash and radishes, the seeds you give your kids to show them the miracle of gardening, fail on me.
Luckily the farmer’s market doesn’t have this issue so I can use some of these yummy recipes.
Something we love is to split a butternut or acorn squash or small pumpkin in half, take out the seeds. Sprinkle a spoon of brown sugar along with a light sprinkling of cinnamon, a pinch of salt and a pat of butter in the seed hollow. Bake in a medium oven (about 350F, 180C) until tender. Then each person scoops out the lovely not-too-sweet treat from the flesh. My kids love these on chilly Autumnal evenings as ‘dessert’.
I use squash in casseroles, stews, stir fry, baking and mash as well. Yummy!
Mmm. Sounds tasty! I love sweet potatoes as dessert, but haven’t tried it with pumpkins. I’ll have to give butternut squash another try – I didn’t care for it the first time I’d eaten it years ago. Now that my tastes have matured perhaps it will become a new trend!
I know that am waaaay late on this, but I had to add mine!
http://staceirene.blogspot.com/2010/08/outcome-of-some-of-that-hard-work-i-am.html
I just started a food/gardening blog after being so inspired and by lurking around the web for years! Thanks for all the inspiration from the writers here. I recently posted about my favorite summer squash uses. I love the zucchini relish recipe in the Simply in Season cookbook.
http://midmikitchen.blogspot.com/2010/08/summer-squash-season.html
The disappearing zucchini orzo from Barbara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is also delicious. It uses a lot of shredded summer squash – and really does “disappear!” (long link to the recipe PDF.)
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:CU3z-JimbmQJ:www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/Zucchini%2520Orzo.pdf+barbara+kingsolver+zucchini+orzo&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiF566VZstIAJTtJ1-ImGutRuYsaRqBZOEq_Rlk39y40lIe9af4OH1tlyWC68aknSFc7GWnsUJiieYZSpHMz6ClAaNdxS0hiINhNuLC6GTXzXTAlNOun7aY2lGXqXPugmyH45le&sig=AHIEtbSj0B5XsQOBOyTH4BA_FMhoDGESXA
Off topic – is there a way to link in the comment section without pasting the entire URL?
This is a chocolate cake recipe that is absolutely perfect, moist and NOM-dilly-icious! I’ve made it a number of times this season along with scads of breads and fried what-nots.
http://cher-homespun.blogspot.com/2010/07/something-sweet-and-chocolaty-to-do.html
This recipe is amazing and reheats well. If you like seafood or not . . . No Crab Crab Cakes made with zucchini
http://cher-homespun.blogspot.com/2010/07/dont-be-crabby.html