When the first few zucchini arrive in your garden, it’s so exciting! The season is new and you are so ready to make all your favorite zucchini recipes. But then, the zucchini keeps coming…and coming…and coming. There are a million jokes in the gardening community about gardeners trying to pawn off extra zucchini on unsuspecting neighbors.
After you’ve become tired of all your tried and true zucchini recipes, what do you do with all the zucchini?
Here is my favorite tip for using up all that zucchini and enjoying the bounty of your garden all year long.
Grate and freeze it. Yes, zucchini gets mushy when you freeze it, but that just means you should cook with it differently than you do when it is fresh. Grated zucchini makes an excellent filler in so many winter recipes and casseroles. And because you are freezing it at the peak of freshness – right from your own backyard – it’s a sneaky way to add some nutrition to your dishes that even picky kids won’t notice.
After you grate your zucchini, let it sit for an hour on a few paper towels or a dishtowel suspended over a bowl so that excess water drains out. This will keep your zucchini from adding unwanted water to your recipes.
Then measure out a cup at a time onto wax paper or butcher paper. I used to use plastic baggies, but I’m trying so hard to avoid single use plastics, and this method works really well!
Fold them up carefully and stack them in the refrigerator for a few hours. By chilling them in the fridge before they go into the freezer, you’ll prevent them from forming ice crystals and again, adding water to your final recipe. Once they are completely chilled, tie them up with twine or put them in a shoe box and store them in the freezer.
When winter arrives and you start making all your cold-weather favorite dishes like lasagna, casseroles or enchiladas, simply defrost a cup or two of zucchini and mix it in with your ingredients. It will practically disappear in most sauces and makes a great thickener for soups. It will bulk up your recipes by improving the nutritional profile and by creating an extra serving or two. Plus, it’s just a great feeling using garden ingredients in the middle of winter.
Try my recipe for Garlicky Chicken and Zucchini Meatballs!
