Are you overflowing with zucchini from the garden? It happens. In May, the seedlings come in four packs or the seeds come in a pouch of 20. You plant them all, with confidence but also enough doubt that it seems better to overdo it. Just in case. But now. Now it is August and you are swimming in zucchini. One plant would have been enough and you know that now, but it is too late. You are getting two zukes per plant every day and if you sleep late, they turn into baseball bats. Zucchini fill your refrigerator veggie bin. Your friends make sure they lock their car doors when they visit and check the trunk before they leave. Your neighbors don’t come to say hi anymore. Everyone is tired of your zucchini. How can you keep the bounty from being a burden?
Shred It
Shred and freeze it! Freeze it in measured quantities for your recipes, so you use the right amount when you pull out a wad of frozen zucchini. Squeeze out the water and use it by its original measurement. My favorite recipes for this are zucchini bread and zucchini-crusted pizzas, both recipes are at the end of this post. There are many other recipe options for frozen zucchini. Plop the frozen wad in your favorite soup or chili recipe (my brother’s idea).
Bake zucchini breads and freeze them! If you have time and air conditioning and freezer space…you might consider loading the freezer with ready-to-go quick breads. Cook something new. Lasagna with zucchini layers? Ratatouille? You’ve grilled, but have you tried grilling extras for grilled veggie sandwiches with hummus for lunch? Research a recipe online and try a fresh take on zucchini.
Donate zukes to your local food bank or soup kitchen. Our food bank has a drop bin accessible at all hours. Call your local shelter or group home—if they have cooking facilities on site, they might accept vegetable donations.
What About the Green Baseball Bats?
They are great for baking or shredding and freezing. Or make baked zucchini boats—scoop them out and stuff them with a chopped mixture of zucchini, meat, rice, tomatoes and spices. Have a zucchini toss! Have a zucchini battle (just pretend hit, as these buggers really would make effective weapons). Feed them to the chickens. Carve a sign. My zucchini sign lasted for over a week. Use it as a greeting card. Write a note on it with a sharpie (the recipient can still peel it for cooking) or carve your greeting into the skin.
Two Gluten-Free Zucchini Recipes
Both of these recipes are easily gluten-free. But don’t let that scare away the wheat-eaters in the crowd; I happily serve all kinds of eaters these recipes. They are delicious and worthy.
Zucchini-crusted pizza – this link is the original, from Mollie Katzen’s book The Moosewood Cookbook. I substitute the flour with brown rice based all purpose gluten-free flour mix, but other gluten-free flours would work like gluten-free oat flour or almond flour. This one is hard to make dairy-free, as the cheese serves as a binder. There is barely any flour in it.
I like the revision of the recipe in this blog, cooking it at high heat like a regular pizza crust. I don’t usually add toppings to the crust, because it stands alone so well and gets soggy with toppings. However, I will try toppings again with this blog’s revision of cooking the crusts at higher heat.
Gluten-Free (can be dairy-free) Zucchini Bread
Use your favorite recipe or search online for way too many options. This is my go-to gluten-free recipe. I have changed up the flours with success. I make it dairy-free, replacing the butter with coconut oil.
Ilene White Freedman operates House in the Woods organic CSA farm with her husband, Phil, in Frederick, Maryland. They will be making a presentation about weeds and bugs in your organic garden at Mother Earth News Fair Sunday September 12. The Freedmans are one of six 2013 Mother Earth News Homesteaders of the Year. Ilene blogs about making things from scratch, putting up the harvest, gardening and farm life at Mother Earth News and Blog.HouseInTheWoods.com, easy to follow from our Facebook Page. For more about the farm, go to HouseInTheWoods.com.