Zucchini is adaptable in various recipes.
Zucchini outperforms nearly every other vegetable in the garden once it gets going. There are zucchini pickles, bread and cakes, zucchini salads, cooked zucchini and raw zucchini. If your garden is in overdrive, use both the zucchini and squash flowers when preparing meals.
Raw
Both zucchini and squash flowers are edible raw. Create a summer squash slaw by grating green and yellow-skinned zucchini with red radishes. Dress with mayonnaise and apple cider vinegar. Garnish with the squash flowers. Add slices of zucchini to a tossed salad. Compose an edible flower salad on baby greens with summer squash flowers, pansies and nasturtiums.
Stuffed
Squash flowers are too delicate to stuff and then bake. The flower loses its shape. Instead, stuff the flowers, dip in beaten eggs, then bread crumbs to coat and deep fry or saute. The flowers keep their shape and have a lovely crisp texture from the bread crumbs. Stuff halved zucchini after scooping out the seeds. Use a filling with cooked meat, not raw. Bake until the zucchini is fork tender. Raw zucchini stuffed is a little trickier. Hollow out a tunnel in the middle of a whole zucchini, then fill with a cream cheese-based salad such as salmon mouse. The filling will harden in the refrigerator. Slice in "coins" that show off the filling. Stuff squash flowers with egg, tuna or chicken salad and arrange around the zucchini coins.
Stir Fried
Stir fried zucchini retains its crispness when matchstick-sized pieces are briefly sauteed. Cut the squash blossoms into strips for stir frying or leave them whole. Female squash blossoms have a baby squash behind the blossom. The squash are tiny, no more than an inch long. Stir fry and use as a garnish.
Garnishes
Carve the raw zucchini into the flower shape of a tulip. Use a vegetable peeler to peel a long strip of zucchini, immerse in boiling water for 60 seconds to soften, then roll into a rose shape. Score the outside of the zucchini with a demitasse spoon, then cut into daisy-shaped flowers. The squash blossoms don't require anything to be used as a garnish.
Tags: squash flowers, squash blossoms, bread crumbs, summer squash, zucchini with
