What to do with zucchini? Answer here!

What on EARTH are you to do when your zucchini harvest starts to look like this, and you have already had zucchini for dinner 6 of the last 7 nights??

Below are a few things we have done, some better than others.

Run them through the food processor and put them in the dehydrator! Great for adding to winter stews, casseroles, etc.

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I have an Oster, 4-tray dehydrator. I filled it up and got about 1 quart of dried slices.

You can also attempt to make dehydrated "chips". This attempt didn't turn out so well. We seasoned them with garlic powder during the dehydrating process. I think we would season at the end next time. Try it and let me know!

You can also deyhdrated shredded zucchini. Chris thinks this would make a good topping for a casserole.

Of course, you can shred and freeze zucchini. I did not blanch these first. We'll see if that creates a problem later.

 

Of course, as we discussed on an earlier post, you can shred and make 5 dozen types of muffins!

But, our two favorite ways to make use of the bushels of zucchini were these:

Use a mandolin slicer to uniformly slice lengthwise several medium zucchini.

Throw the slices on a medium hot grill basted lightly with olive oil. Grill on each side until done, slighly crispy is even better!

End up with a pile of delicious grilled zucchini slices. Chris started eating them right off the grill like a snack. We also served them with dinner one night. If you do a large batch (this was 6-8 medium-large zucchini) it does take a while.

I took the first grilled batch and froze them. After they were cooked I layed them out individually on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. I just keep adding layers of parchment and zucchini slices. I stuck it in the freezer overnight. The next morning I pulled all the slices off and stuck them in a freezer bag and into the deep freeze. I think I will be adding these to fall roasted vegetable dishes, and using them in a veggie lasagna.

 But, out absolute number one favorite was this dish:

Run the zucchini through a food processor's slicer blade to get thin, uniform slices. Dump the bowl of slices into the bottom half of a broiler pan. Season with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Cook on the grill or in the oven until they are starting to brown slightly. Then top them with shredded Romano cheese and place under the broiler until the cheese melts, is bubbly and starting to brown.

This is SO delicious. I don't even like zucchini and I went back for seconds. The Romano cheese is the key. We have done both Parmesan, and Romano, and the Romano is by far better. Richer and more flavorful. It reminded me of a zucchini gratin. So that is what I am calling it. Romano Zucchini Gratin.

As you can see....it didn't last long....

Do you do something interesting or different with your zucchini abundance? Let us know in the comments! And, if you try out these recipes or ideas...let us know that, too!