Nourish
Zucchini by Stealth: 10 Secret Ways to Use Zucchini in Your Cooking
Zucchini is a vegetable that is packed with nutrients and flavour. You can use it in everything from soups to salads, even desserts.
Zucchini is a type of squash with green skin and white flesh. It is such a versatile vegetable! You can eat it raw in salads or cooked in various dishes, such as pasta, soups and casseroles.
My kids LOVE them! — when they don't know they're there!
While it's true, you've got to present a food multiple times for a child to accept it often. We're going on 15 years now, so I've devised other ways to smuggle this incredible veg into their meal because I enjoy them and want to add them to our cooking.
Let's take a look at how.
Why the Smuggle Method?
There are so many reasons to use zucchini as part of your cooking. Zucchini are awesome because they:
- Add fibre and other nutrients to a dish.
- They can lighten up the texture of a heavier meat-based meal.
- Zucchini are cheap to buy at the supermarket.
- Better still, they can store for a long time in the fridge.
- Zucchini are quick and easy to grow, if you're into veggie gardening.
- Zucchini can help to bulk out a meal so that it goes a bit further, so they are budget-friendly.
- They have a very mild taste on their own so can be paired with almost anything for the ultimate food fashion accessory!
- Zucchini has a high water content so they can really cook down and blend nicely into a meal.
How To Prepare Zucchini
Zucchini can be eaten raw with your favourite dip or cooked in many different ways.
For most of these food ideas I've used below, you'll grate the zucchini for major stealth effect. But if you want to cut the zucchini instead for more of a chunky consistency that's perfect too.
To cut, start by slicing it lengthwise into 1/2-inch thick slices (or as desired), then chop them into smaller pieces. I recommend keeping the skin on. It adds good colour and gives added fibre.
Zucchini by Stealth
Here are our top 10 ways to add zucchini to your dish.
- Grate it and add it to pasta sauce (or any sauce including, curry, or casserole).
- Grate it and add it to your hamburgers mix (make sure you drain off the excess liquid first).
- Grate the zucchini and mix it with some feta or your favourite cheese or cheese alternative, some salt and pepper and then and toast it in a delicious toastie sandwich.
- Make some zucchini soup (I love this with lots of pepper added) so do the kids.
- Mix zucchini into it to a rice dish like fried rice or risotto.
- Sprinkle the zucchini on a homemade pizza. Under the cheese keeps it nice and moist.
- Make some zucchini bread (like banana bread only with zucchini!)
- Try mixing up a batch of zucchini fritters.
- Make a zucchini quiche using the zucchini either on its own as the hero ingredient or as a supporting ingredient.
- Add zucchini to a potato bake.
The Not so Stealth Method
Suppose you're lucky enough to have kids who are okay with visually identifiable zucchini! Here are some other ways you can enjoy it!
- Make zoodles (zucchini noodles). You don't need a fancy zoodle-maker either, I use a julienne peeler to create zoodles.
- Keep it simple steam the zucchini with other veggies.
- Roasted zucchini with other veggies. Roast with garlic it's delicious!
- Make some zucchini tempura, which is zucchini fried in a light batter.
Whether it's as an entry, snack or the main dish at dinner time, there are many tasty ways to enjoy this popular vegetable.
How do you use zucchini in your cooking?
By Stealth? Or not so Stealth?
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