13 Must-Try Zucchini Recipes: Clever Ways to Use Zucchini
Are you growing zucchini, but also growing tired of eating it? Or are you simply looking for some interesting and different ways to use zucchini? Then this post full of zucchini recipes is for you!
I love zucchini and summer squash, but it can admittedly get a bit boring if it’s prepared the same few ways all summer long. It can also become overwhelming if your garden is pumping out pounds and pounds of it. Yet with its mild flavor and texture, zucchini is one of the most versatile veggies out there! You just have to be creative. So, read along and get inspired to try something new with 13 delicious vegetarian and vegan zucchini recipe ideas.
RELATED: Need tips on successfully growing your own zucchini? Pop over to our summer squash grow guide once you’re finished browsing here!
Ways to Prepare Zucchini
Before we jump into the recipes, let’s quickly discuss some ways you can prepare and use zucchini in general. After all, we honestly don’t follow exact recipes all that often. Perhaps you’re the same?
- Our go-to way to eat zucchini is lightly sautéed or stir-fried with olive oil or butter, salt, pepper, and some garlic or onion (and usually other seasonal veggies too). The key is to not overcook it so it doesn’t become mush.
- Zucchini is also wonderful grilled, either cut into rounds and added to a skewer or long slices right on the grill. Of course it can also be baked or roasted as well.
- I also really enjoy raw zucchini, such as sliced and served with dips, or turned into zoodles for a cold zucchini salad.
- One awesome way to use up a lot of zucchini is to add it to soups. We make large batches of veggie-loaded soups all year long, and freeze extras in these reusable BPA-free quart containers to enjoy as quick and easy meals later.
- Zucchini can also be frozen raw, prepped and ready to use in future sourdough zucchini bread, soups, stews or chili. Learn two ways how to freeze squash and zucchini here.
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13 Zucchini Recipe Ideas
1) Zoodles with Pesto
Of all the zucchini recipes on the list, we eat this one the most often. Zoodles are a fantastic low-carb alternative to pasta (Type 1 diabetic here), and with the assistance of a spiralizer, are very quick and easy to prepare! You can substitute zoodles in any recipe that calls for noodles, and enjoy them raw or cooked.
Zucchini noodles are excellent with classic tomato sauce, as a cold salad with nuts, green onion, grated carrots and an Asian-style dressing, or our personal favorite: zoodles served with garden pesto, fresh tomatoes, black beans (because protein), and sourdough focaccia.
Learn how to make the perfect zoodles with pesto here!
2) Zucchini “Ravioli”
Y’all know Half Baked Harvest, right? Teighan’s recipes always look fantastically scrumptious, and these pesto-stuffed zucchini raviolis are no exception. Despite the name, the recipe doesn’t include any pasta. Rather, thinly-sliced zucchini becomes the “ravioli” shell to hold the creamy filling. Even without the whole tomatoes, I’d be keen on dumping some of our simple roasted tomato sauce in the dish around the raviolis instead.
3) Zucchini and Walnut Sourdough Bread
Zucchini breads are a fun and tasty way to “sneak” more veggies into your diet. And while sweet zucchini breads definitely have their place and time (next in line below), I’m all about the savory! Please enjoy our rustic zucchini and walnut sourdough bread recipe. It’s moist, fluffy, chewy, and even more nutritious than regular sourdough!
4) Sweet Zucchini Breads
Looking for something on the sweeter side? You’ve gotta try our Delicious Sourdough Zucchini Bread Recipe with optional add-ins like chocolate, nuts, seeds, or dried fruit. Made with probiotic-rich sourdough starter, zero refined sugar, and whole wheat pastry flour (optional), our recipe is more nutritious than classic sweet zucchini breads. You may also like this popular chocolate zucchini bread recipe from Allrecipes. Or check out Bakertia’s chocolate chunk zucchini bread; it’s gluten-free and paleo-friendly!
5) Zucchini Fritters
Here’s another one of our in-house zucchini recipes. These parmesan zucchini fritters are so fun and flavorful. Kiddos love them, and they’re even good as cold leftovers! The fritters are fluffy, moist, browned to perfection on the outside, and soft on the inside. Reminiscent of hash browns – but less carbs, and with cheese! I highly recommend serving them with our healthy dill, garlic, and lemon yogurt sauce.
6) Zucchini Relish
Looking to preserve some of your zucchini harvest? Try our delicious sweet and tangy zucchini relish recipe! It’s perfect for canning, the freezer, or easy refrigerator storage, and you can make it spicy if you prefer. Zucchini relish goes great with veggie burgers, hot dogs, tacos, mixed into deviled eggs or salads (like potato, pasta or egg salad) and other grilled summer meals.
7) Squash Skillet Casserole
I just saw this creamy crunchy squash skillet recipe from Must Love Herbs on Instagram the other day, and knew it needed to be included in this zucchini recipe round-up. She calls it a casserole, though it instantly reminded me of au gratin potatoes (but with zucchini instead). Yum! Either way, it’s safe to say I will definitely be making this soon.
8) Stuffed Squash or “Zucchini Boats”
Squash grows really fast, and has the ability to get HUGE seemingly overnight. Overgrown squash has the tendency to get a bit seedy and tough, but that doesn’t mean it needs to go to waste. In fact, I purposely allow a few zucchini to grow extra large every season – just so we can make stuffed squash! There are dozens of recipes out there, but I hope you thoroughly enjoy our fiesta-style stuffed zucchini recipe with wild rice and black beans. It’s wonderful topped with cheese and fresh cilantro.
9) Zucchini Risotto with Roasted Tomatoes
My friend Jackie from the Vegan Yack Attack is making me drool over her summery zucchini risotto with roasted tomatoes. The dish is hearty, delicious and ultra-comforting. As her blog name suggests, this zucchini recipe is also vegan, though it’s easy to swap around ingredients if you prefer dairy in your risotto!
10) Air Fryer Zucchini Chips
We tried to make zucchini chips in our food dehydrator once, and they didn’t get crisp enough for my liking. On the other hand, these air fryer zucchini chips from Michelle at Healthier Steps look super crispy – and delicious! They’re lightly breaded, perfectly seasoned, vegan, low-carb, paleo and gluten-free! Or if you’re into a more classic option, try these zucchini chips complete with parmesan cheese, panko breadcrumbs and a sour cream dip.
11) Zucchini Pickles
Here’s another preserved zucchini recipe idea: pickled zucchini. They’re admittedly not *quite* as crunchy as cucumber pickles, but they’re still zesty and delicious! If you’re interested in canning, I suggest using this well-rated zucchini pickles recipe from All Recipes. Otherwise, you could try these popular and easy refrigerator zucchini pickles from Valerie’s Kitchen.
12) Vegetarian Lasagna
I mean, who doesn’t love a good lasagna? I honestly haven’t had it in a long time, but between all the squash, basil, carrots and eggplant we’re currently harvesting from the garden, I think we’re going to make some this weekend! We have our sights set on this vegetarian lasagna recipe from the Cookie and Kate. It’s easy to modify and use whatever seasonal veggies you have on hand. Plus, it’s a great way to use our favorite homegrown roasted tomato sauce!
13) Zucchini Greek Salad
Let’s end on a light, fresh, extra-healthy note with a Greek-inspired zucchini salad. The recipe calls for raw zucchini, so the salad comes together in minutes! The kalamata olives, red onion, parsley, fresh lemon and feta cheese offer bright and savory flavors, while the chickpeas provide a nice punch of protein. According to the author, the salad stores and travels well, so it’d be a good one to make ahead or share!
And that concludes this round-up of zucchini recipes!
As you can see, there are SO many tasty and creative ways to use zucchini – and endless recipes out there to try! This is literally just the tip of the squash-berg. Putting together this list of zucchini recipes for you honestly made me SO excited for our next bumper crop of squash… something I’m not usually so stoked about by July. 😂 I want to make and eat it all. I hope you also found a few zucchini recipes you’re excited to try! Please add any of your favorite summer squash recipes in the comments below.
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26 Comments
Pat B.
Wow! All delicious recipes that will be tried out this week. Thank you for all your hard work and sharing with us!!
Beth Ann
Thanks for all the great recipes! Can’t wait to try. As always, your posts are a wealth of info. So many helpful things. Than you!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Thank you so much Beth Ann!
Jacqueline Sanchez
Thanks you so much for all these great ideas! I look forward to testing some out this summer.
Virginia
I saved the entire post as a note because I was seeing so many great recipes here! I’m T1D also and love that much can be swapped as needed! Thanks for a great post!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Virginia, so glad you enjoyed the post and we hope you enjoy a few of the recipes over the summer!
Kay
A completely different zucchini lasagna. 8×8 cassarole dish, or similar size, spray or rub with oil. Slice zucchini long wise. (Optional, thinly slice any tomato of choice.) Layer zucchini in pan, cover as much of bottom of pan as possible. Dribble with
lemon juice, just 2-3 drops per slice, sprinkle with salt of choice (pink) & pepper if using. Add a thin layer of mozzarella (I use Violife, dairy allergy). Drizzle lightly with olive oil (dark or light, I like to use both, just alternate which one you use between layers). If using tomato slices add a layer of tomatoes, sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper (if using sliced grape or cherry tomatoes, just hodge podge them into the zucchini layers – just not the very bottom layer). Follow with another layer of zucchini, lemon juice, salt & pepper, cheese, olive oil, repeat till you run out of zucchini slices. Top with cheese and a drizzle of olive oil. It is totally fine if your layers are up to 1inch higher than the dish is deep, this will shrink. (I usually use one medium zucchini for this and get around 4 or more layers.) Bake at 350°F for 15-25 minutes. Start checking on it at 15 minutes. The original recipe I adapted this from first parboiled the zucchini slices in salted water and dried them off. I skip this step cause I don’t mind the “juice” in the bottom of the dish, and it helps the faux cheese melt (as does the olive oil). You could probably top it off with buttered breadcrumbs too come to think of it (maybe not above the dishes sides though…). I like to eat this hot, mom prefers the cold leftovers. Technically, the original recipe also says you must use the best high quality mozzarella for this or don’t even bother making it. I didn’t listen. Why should dairy eaters have all the fun? 😉 I’m sure it would be awesome with real cheese too though. Oh, and one version also added a very tiny sprinkle of ginger along with the salt and pepper for each layer of zucchini slices. I tried that once but didn’t add enough to taste it, so I’ll have to try that one again. It’s just so sad that it disappears so fast. Lol.
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Hi Kay, thank you so much for sharing, sounds delicious!
Deana Tankersley
Yes, so nice to see more exciting options for lots of zukes coming feom the garden.😉😄🤗 Thanks so much for sharing some excellent looking recipes. 😍👌
Judy Hawkes
Try this. It’s a real favourite in our house.
Greek Style Courgette and Cheese Pie:
2 tbsp plain bread crumbs
2 tsp. vegetable oil
¼ cup finely chopped onion
2 cups grated courgette
1 clove minced garlic
3 eggs
1 cup cottage cheese
1 tbsp. cornflour
1 dessert spoon chopped fresh oregano or teaspoon dried
pinch salt
pinch pepper
small pinch of cinnamon
1 cup grated cheese
Method for Greek Style Courgette and Cheese Pie:
Grease a 9″ pie plate, sprinkle it with bread crumbs and set it aside.
Heat oil in a large non-stick pan. Add onion and cook over medium heat for 4 minutes, stirring often.
Add courgette and garlic. Cook 3-4 minutes, stirring often.
Set aside to cool for 5 minutes. Preheat oven Gas 4, 180ºC .
Combine eggs, cottage cheese, cornflour, oregano, salt, pepper, and cinnamon. Stir until smooth.
In a large bowl, combine cooked vegetables, cottage cheese/egg mixture and cheddar. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake 30 minutes or until knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Let stand 5 minutes before serving.
Absolutely delicious. Serve with a green salad and bread if necessary (the pie is filling on its own). And it’s another way to use up that summer glut of courgettes!
Aaron (Mr. DeannaCat)
Thanks for sharing Judy, sounds delicious!
Hillary
Our favorite way to eat zucchini is the same as yours–sauteed with avo oil or ghee, and a bit of onion and garlic powder; however we always add this to our scrambled eggs in the morning, so delish!! Second fav is zoodles, with a veg sauce with more squash like butternut. Thanks for alllll the recipes, we’ll have to try the chocolate Zuc bread and fritters next.
Virginia
I saved 4 of these recipes but they all look awesome. And I, too, am T1D.
Bailey O.
Thanks for some new ideas Deanna! Ill be sharing these with my mom and a few friends!