A few weeks ago, my boys came in from playing with their dog. They said that their dog had ran through the garden, stopping to roll on the young zucchini plants. They reported that two of the plants were destroyed.
And it looked like they were right. Most of the leaves had been pulled off the plant and the few remaining leaves were crushed. I had planted the zucchini plants late and didn't know if I had time to replant.
But it takes more than a mere dog to kill a zucchini. Actually, the tiny squash bugs are the most hated enemy of zucchini in our area. This time the plants made a complete recovery, and now I have a fridge stuffed with zucchini.
Time to pull out our favorite zucchini recipes.
Zucchini bread is an obvious choice. We all love zucchini bread. But most recipes only take a cup or two. If I have a pan-full of zucchini, I need a recipe that uses zucchini as a major ingredient, not a garnish.
A few years ago I found a recipe in Cooks Illustrated magazine that used, not just cups, but pounds of zucchini. The secret was removing as much moisture as possible from the zucchini so the bread didn't become too wet and gummy.
It works. I simply place the shredded zucchini in a clean dish towel and wring out all the water I can before mixing it with the other ingredients. I adjusted the spices a little and increased the size of the recipe - who wants to heat up the oven for just one loaf? Now we have our new favorite zucchini bread recipe, one that is stuffed with this easy-to-grow vegetable.
10 cups (about 3 lb) shredded zucchini
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup oil
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 T. cinnamon
3 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg
3/4 cup chopped walnuts, optional
1 cup mini chocolate chips, optional
Place shredded zucchini in a clean dish towel and squeeze out as much water as possible. Beat sugar, oil and eggs together. Add all ingredients together and mix well. Pour into 2 large or 3 medium-size loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes. Do not under bake.
Need more ways to use zucchini? Here are our five favorite zucchini recipes not including zucchini bread.
Thanks for this recipe! That has been my frustration, too, when I have lots of zucchini to use up - the recipes don't use enough of it. This is great!
ReplyDelete-Mary Beth Martin
I'm excited to try this recipe. I've thought the same thing about zucchini bread with only a cup of zucchini, but have been been ambitious enough to find a solution. 😂
ReplyDeleteI need to save this for next summer!
ReplyDeleteYou should try this salsa! Great way to use up zucchini. I put less jalapeños in for my family.
ReplyDeletehttps://reluctantentertainer.com/sweet-smokey-zucchini-salsa-recipe/
I will try this recipe for the bread, but divided into three. I agree that it doesn't seem worth it putting the oven on for one loaf, but living on my own and running out of freezer space, three loaves are just too much.
ReplyDeleteO pressure can my zucchini!
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ReplyDeleteI tried this tonight, and we all really enjoyed it! Thanks for a great recipe for this time of the year with an abundance of zucchini.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this recipe - it was wonderful! I so agree - I can never find a recipe that uses ENOUGH zucchini, and this recipe was just perfect. In fact, I didn't buy enough zucchini and had to make up about half the bulk with grated apple! (Which worked beautifully!)
ReplyDeleteAlso, just an FYI that I was successfully able to reduce the sugar by a quarter. I like quick breads to be less sweet, and the texture was still just perfect.
Thanks again!
Diana