20 Essential Zucchini Recipes: A Chat With Margaret Roach
Earlier this week, I chatted with my friend Margaret Roach, the master gardener behind A Way to Garden and author of the award-winning book, A Way to Garden, all about farm shares and the unique problems farm share subscribers face.
In our chat, we discuss strategies for dealing with our weekly hauls and share favorite ways to prepare the one vegetable you cannot have enough creative recipes for this time of year: summer squash.
After I hung up the phone with Margaret, I felt inspired to branch out and immediately tried two new recipes, both of which I cannot recommend enough: this simple zucchini sauté over on Smitten Kitchen (so fast! pictured below) and these zucchini tortillas, which are baked, made with four ingredients, and happen to be gluten-free. I’ve rounded up 20 more zucchini recipe ideas below.
You can listen to our chat or read the transcript over on A Way To Garden, where you can also leave a comment to enter a giveaway: Margaret is giving away a copy of my book, Bread Toast Crumbs.
Subscribe to all of Margaret’s future podcast episodes on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify or Stitcher AND enter to win a copy of Margaret’s A Way to Garden by leaving a comment below. Please tell me if you have a favorite way to prepare zucchini or other summer squash, or simply tell me your favorite summer recipe.
PS: Do you follow Margaret on Instagram? She is the funniest.
20 Zucchini Recipes to Make All Summer Long
Zucchini Tortillas (4-Ingredients, Gluten-Free, Baked) (A new favorite.)
Quick Zucchini Sauté over at Smitten Kitchen (Another new favorite.)
Zucchini Bread (Contest Winning 🎉🎉🎉)
Fried Squash Blossoms from Jenny Rosenstach’s Dinner A Love Story: How delicious do these look?
Sautéed Summer Squash with Mint, Basil & Pine Nuts
Oven-Baked Zucchini Fries over at Marilena’s Kitchen
Roasted Ratatouille = The Best Ratatouille
Veggie-Loaded Stuffed Bell Peppers
Summer Squash Pizza with Burrata and Basil
Toasted Orecchiette with Zucchini & Corn
Hetty McKinnon’s Melted Zucchini Pasta
Zucchini Relish over on Delish.Com
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72 Comments on “20 Essential Zucchini Recipes: A Chat With Margaret Roach”
Oh, my! These recipes look divine. Perfect timing for what’s in the garden. Thanks! And here is my post from Margaret’s website— I grate summer squash, salt it and drain, and then combine it with grated Swiss or Gruyère cheese to use for a grilled “cheese” sandwich, broiled open face sandwich or pizza topping. A friend shared this idea with me, and I put it to use this time of year. Looking forward to trying your involtini recipe.
My husband is from Turkey, and our go-to recipe for 4 summer squash/zucchini, 2 eggplant and 4 sweet peppers is lightly brushing with EVOO and roasting (or grilling using Milk Street’s Közmatik adding chips to smoke in our grill – YUM!) . While he is grilling, I make the 2 sauces and the pasta. Sauce 1: Approx 1.5 cups homemade (Greek style) yogurt and .5 tsp finely chopped fresh garlic. Sauce 2: 2 Tbls Kerrygold salted butter, smoked paprika in small fry pan – left to heat to a froth until just before serving. Prepare pasta of choice, timing just before veggies done. When veggies all cooked just JUST done (not mushy), add to each plate: layer of pasta, some of each of the veggies, Sauce 1, then Sauce 2. SERVE IMMEDIATELY.
Gorgeous photos! I want to cook all of your recipes!
Thanks for the giveaways on your site and on Margaret’s.
My favorite zucchini recipe is ratatouille, —-roasted or grilled or stovetop—preferably all ingredients from my garden. With Margaret being by my side, virtually, my garden explodes with all the necessary ingredients and with you also by my side, my sourdough bread sops up the delicious roasted ratatouille juices.
I really like to just fry up some young zucchini coins with salt and pepper in olive oil or butter….quick easy and fresh tasting.
Wow – these recipes look amazing! Makes me want to run out and get a bushel of zucchini! And thank you for the book / podcast recommendation! Heading on over to listen now!
Love your recipes!
My favorite way to use zucchini (and most summer veggies) is your spectacular Roasted Ratatouille. I can basically toss in whatever and it comes out amazing every time! Love these other zucchini ideas too!
In every single photo accompanying your recipes the zucchini looks green and vibrant, not floppy and faded. I feel this is so important. Squash are delicate and overcooking leads to veggies devoid of nutrients let alone taste. So I love the fact that the specs of green throughout are dark and and lustrous ? the way they would look fresh from the garden. I assume that means they retain a little soft crunch, which is fine. Many people eat zucchini raw as well but I am not a fan of completely raw when partial cooking does such wonders as in all your recipes.
Per Margaret R.’s instructions I contributed a recipe to her comment section for basic steamed zucchini which I enjoy, though it’s quite simple. So I have thrown my (gardening) hat in the ring to win your book and I hope this comment constitutes another entry. I love the title. We toast a lot in my family, the house often smells of toast, I toast even crackers that say they are toasted and my husband severely toasts his bread. I would love your book!
I listened to your interview with Margaret Roach. Will try your zucchini recipes as the squash is starting to produce.
I listened and the podcast was great. I made a yellow squash gratin yesterday and it’s a favorite. Tonight it is cheese stuffed blossoms. Thanks for the great ideas.
I like to make a roasted veggie sandwich using oven roasted zucchini,red peppers and onions. I use a ciabatta roll with mayo on one side and butter on other side. Add cheese of choice, wrap in foil and heat in oven until cheese is melted.
I love zucchini. I have made zucchini bread for many years. It is definitely my go to for all the zucchini. I enjoyed hearing of some new ideas for their use. Having Ali’s book would be a wonderful addition.
Love the idea of a zucchini tortilla and can’t wait to try. One of my family’s favorite ways is to mandoline the zucchini into thin ribbon strips and serve it like a carpaccio with good olive oil, lemon or lime juice, fresh basil and toasted pine nuts. The kids love the ribbons and pick them up with their fingers almost slurping them down. And I do a baked casserole, a riff on a southern dish of zucchini, chopped onion, egg, melted butter and bread crumbs baked into a custardy finish. Your recent post has given me many more ideas to try….thanks!
I’ve been reading Ali’s newsletter for years. Looking forward to her next cookbook!
Summer squash frittata! Grate squash, drain, sauté with onions fresh thyme rosemary, add eggs salt and pepper and bake to finish! Thank you for all you recipes! We all need every tip possible to use up the summer’s bounty of squash!
Stirred some sliced summer squash up today in butter with sliced garlic scapes, when slightly tender sprinkled on some Parmesan and a little lemon zest, salt an pepper. Yum!
Can’t wait to try these fabulous recipes. At our house we enjoy grilled zucchini slices (lengthwise) with garlicky olive oil and herbs! Make up a big batch of it and use it in pastas, sandwiches, frittatas…so many possibilities. Combine with grilled yellow squash, eggplant, peppers and onions, and you’ve got a slice of summer vegetable heaven. Thanks for this tantalizing episode Margaret! Can’t wait to get cooking.
My favorite summer squash recipe is zucchini bread. I add chocolate chips. Ali has a great one!
Salt zucchini, drain, sauté with garlic and serve over pasta with Parmesan cheese.
My favorite way with Zucchini are:
1) to stuff them with a zucchini core, corn, peppers, onion, tomatoes and garlic mix. Bake them topped with cheese and parmesan and herb topping after removing from the oven. Yummm
2) Oven roasted and them processing them into a ground state like a baba ganouj, but made entirely out of zucchini Yummmm
3) summer squash – yellow I love to just slightly steam and mix with caramelized onion, garlic and fresh herbs, w maybe a sprinkling of parmesan on top Yummm
Thank you so much!
I would love to own the book you mention here “Bread Toast Crumbs”! Thank you
I love your recipes because they are simple and WITHOUT a ton of ingredients that are not only hard to find, but detract from the actual food! Tonight I will make roasted ratatouille! With peasant bread of course!
Can’t wait to try the zucchini tortillas with roasted cherry tomatoes, red onion, and goat cheese filling! I would love to win Margaret Roach’s “A Way to Garden” even though the local squirrels enjoy a fair percentage of my yield. Gardening hope springs eternal, however, and the neigbourhood dogs have the odds evened chasing portly squirrels.
Love chocolate zucchini bread!
This isn’t a recipe, but the most fun thing I ever have done with zucchini happened last year on National Leave a Zucchini on a Neighbor’s Porch Day. Yes, there really is a day designated for that surreptitious act. I took a zuke, fastened a Happy you know what Day greeting attached with curly ribbon, with a note admonishing them to celebrate responsibly.
I love to slice it and put it in my Wok along with onion, garlic, salt and pepper!
My husband’s grandmother used to make zucchini relish every summer. It’s delicious!! My favorite way to use zucchini: Slice zucchini & tomatoes into round slices, then layer them into a baking dish with an added, thin layer of cheese (whatever you have on hand, or your fav – I’ve enjoyed mild Cheddar or Parmesan). Season to taste (I have used fresh herbs, or dried from my spice cabinet) – herbs like basil, or thyme, or oregano…whatever you have that you like. Repeat the layers then bake until the cheese is bubbly and a fork can pierce the zucchini easily. You can leave the cheese out for a healthier dish, or add bacon crumbs for more flavor. 🙂
My zucchini plants aren’t doing much yet, but I’ve got recipes planned for when they finally do! My favorites are spaghetti with sauteed zucchini, and grilled zucchini and goat cheese sandwiches (on foccacia!). I also want to try SK’s zucchini galette. My family doesn’t like zucchini bread, but I’m planning to make some anyway and maybe freeze slices of it.
The Broadcast presentation was really well-organized and gave me lots of ideas for how to use zucchini. I especially appreciated that there weren’t a lot of “uhms” or other distracting verbal stumblings that often make listening to podcasts somewhat difficult. However, when I tried to get a recipe it was immediately overlaid with advertising such that it was impossible to print out any one of them.
Excited to try these! Would love to win a copy of your cookbook too since these recipes look amazing!