Vegetable Burritos
When I lived in Philadelphia for college, I worked as a hostess at a Tex-Mex restaurant. Their vegetable burrito came packed with savory zucchini, portobellos, roasted corn, peppers, onions, rice and beans. Although there are a lot of layers to building this baby, it’s totally worth it.
Start by cooking up your rice and beans and set aside while you cook your other ingredients. Cut zucchini with skin on into ¼ thick rounds and then into quarter rounds. Place zucchini onto a paper towel and sprinkle with a little sea salt to draw out some of the moisture. After about 15 minutes, pat dry of all moisture.
Cut onions and mushrooms into thin strips. Dice fresh garlic. Pat zucchini dry. Toss zucchini and mushrooms with olive oil, sea salt, adobo seasoning, garlic powder, chili powder, cayenne powder, cumin powder and smoked or regular paprika.
In a pan, heat a little cooking oil. Add onions and cook on low-med heat until translucent and starting to caramelize, up to 15 minutes. Then turn up the heat and add garlic, zucchini and mushroom, searing for a few minutes.
Then add frozen or fresh corn and cook a few minutes. Add fresh spinach and wilt. Adjust seasoning to taste and serve wrapped in a large tortilla with rice and beans, cheese, and any of your other favorite burrito add-ons, like guacamole, sour cream, and hot sauce.
Zucchini Pizza
Cut zucchini with skin on into ¼ thick rounds. Place rounds onto a paper towel and sprinkle with a little sea salt to draw out some of the moisture. After about 15 minutes, pat dry of all moisture.
Toss zucchini with olive oil, finely diced fresh garlic and a generous amount of sea salt and black pepper. Add zucchini in a single layer onto a baking sheet and roast in the oven at 400 until crispy and brown, about 20-30 minutes, flipping zucchini halfway through.
While zucchini cooks, coat pizza dough with olive oil. Top with heaps of ricotta or mozzarella. Add roasted zucchini on top with finely shaved shallots and other toppings of you choice. Bake in the oven until dough is crispy. Finish with good olive oil and red pepper flakes before serving.
Zucchini & Eggplant ‘Lasagna’
Because zucchini does well when cooked for a long time, allowing it to take on deep flavors, it’s great when layered with equally tender eggplant and baked in the oven with lots of cheese and a basic savory sugo.
Cut a large eggplant lengthwise with skin on into sheets, roughly 1/4 inch thick. Lay eggplant on a paper towel and sprinkle with salt to draw out some of the bitterness.
Cut zucchini lengthwise, also into thin sheets, matching the thickness of the eggplant and do the same, laying it on a paper towel and sprinkling with salt to draw out excess moisture.
In the meantime, make a quick, basic Pantry Sugo. When sauce is done cover and set aside.
Get out a square pyrex baking dish. Brush with olive oil and run a cut open garlic clove over the oil inside. Pat eggplant and zucchini dry of all moisture.
First add a layer of eggplant on the bottom, top with sugo and a little goat cheese or other soft cheese, like mozzarella or ricotta. Then layer zucchini. Next, go with another layer of eggplant, more sugo and cheese and repeat, leaving a little room on the top of your “lasagna”.
Bake 15 minutes at 350, then remove from the oven. Sprinkle the top with mozzarella cheese and parmesan. Put back in the oven another 15 minutes or until vegetables are super tender and top is crispy.
You can also add layers of ground meat like beef or pork if you have, or other vegetables, such as sautéed mushrooms, spinach, kale etc.
Sautéed Zucchini Ribbons
Remember when zoodles were a craze? Well, I think of this shaved zucchini dish as a more refined way to eat the tender, silky squash.
Using a strong vegetable peeler, shave long thin ribbons of zucchini, using up as much of the vegetable as possible. At some point it will become more difficult to keep peeling as it thins out.
Place your ribbons on a paper towel and sprinkle with a little sea salt to draw some of the water.
Meanwhile, in a pan, heat a few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Add whole smashed garlic cloves and red chili flakes and cook over a very low heat, incorporating the flavor of the garlic and chilis into the oil. After a few minutes, take off the heat and pour the oil with garlic and chili flakes into a container. Once slightly cooled, strain out the flakes and garlic cloves.
Pat dry your zucchini strips and sauté in a pan with your flavored oil, quickly over high heat, ideally getting a little brown caramelization on the zucchini. Top with a little chunky sea salt, lots of lemon, savory parmesan and something crunchy like pine nuts or sunflower seeds. Eat immediately.