Are you awash in squash? Read on to learn how to freeze zucchini and make the most of your bounty!
Had it not been for the destructive maws of the squash vine borer, my fridge would be bursting with zucchini at the moment. Sadly, all of my squash plants (zucchini and patty pan) succumbed to that pesky bug, so my entire summer yield was just a single, 12-inch zucchini. However for those of you who are currently awash in squash, let’s talk a bit about how to preserve that which you can’t possibly eat right now.
This might shock you, but my favorite way to “put up” squash does not include a jar or a trip through a boiling water canner. Nope, when it comes to the summer squashes, I turn to a sturdy grater, zip top bags and my freezer. I roughly grate the zucchini, press out a bit of its liquid and measure it out into two and four cup portions. Packed into bags and labeled, that squash then becomes part of quick breads, soups, pasta sauces and even zucchini fritters all throughout the year.
If I only have a few zucchini to shred, I use a simple box grater to break down my zukes. If there are more that need to be processed, the food processor and a coarse shredding disc are the best choice.
And that’s how to freeze zucchini!
Oh this grater would be fabulous! I love, love, love microplane products. Just last week I grated zucchini into 2 cup ziplocks and froze them. This is my first year trying to put up food for winter – I can’t wait to do more! My friend makes a wonderful stuffed squash dish with a Mexican twist: a mixture of chorizo, ground pork, raisins, almonds, the insides of the zucchinis, and some spices, topped with canned red chili sauce and cojita.
I’ve been getting my zucchini at farm markets this year, and just tried the most delicious lemon zucchini blueberry muffin recipe I found at mayamade… I’ll have to freeze some zucchini so I can make them this winter too!
I don’t have zucchini, but I like your suggestion of grating and freezing for later. This microplane would have a solid place in my kitchen as the official coleslaw carrot and apple grater. Yum!
I am fortunate to be blessed with a little TOO MUCH zuchinni, so this greater would come in very handy for the mass I need to can and freeze this month – I like to put grated zuchinni in my canned tomato sauce for extra quick spagetti.
I’ve not had good luck with freezing grated zucchini for breads, as they seem to get mushy. Maybe I didn’t drain them long enough, so I may give your method a try. The way I do successfully freeze zucchini is to slice into 1/4 inch rounds, blanch briefly, then put into ice water to stop the cooking, dry on a towel, freeze on a cookie sheet, then put into freezer bags. These work well for soups, casseroles, etc.
I could use the coarse grater, so count me in for the giveaway. Thanks!
Funny story-a few days ago I was looking for a rhubarb jam recipe. I spent about 30-45 minutes on line looking for one that I thought would be good. Boring recipe after boring recipe. Then I saw one was from you and I knew it would be the one I made even before I clicked the link-and it was. The moment I saw it I slapped my forhead and thought “I should have known to look there first.” It was very very good! 🙂
My husband and I also grate and freeze our summer squash. We just get more than we can use, and summer never seems like a good time to eat the hot dishes squash tastes best in. We do love to make squash bread though, and vegetable “chips.” We just slice squash, carrots, sweet potatoes and other veggies very thin (about 1/4 inch thick), coat evenly with oil, sprinkle with sea salt and then bake in the oven for a couple hours at 300 degrees. They are so delicious and much better for you than regular potato chips!
My first visit to this site (which was immediately bookmarked!) and there’s this fantastic giveaway. I too have microplane/grater love.
The easiest way I know how to serve zucchini, and the most delicious, is:
grate (!) a few zucchinis into colander. Sprinkle on a little salt, toss, and let sit in the sink to drain–about 15 minutes. Toss again and very gently squeeze with your hands.
Place in a bowl, add a few glugs of olive oil, a squirt of lemon and a few grinds from the peppermill. Toss again and serve. Extras, if you have the time/inclination: small handful of rough chopped roasted almonds and/or some shaved, good quality parm.
great idea to freeze the zucchini! i am new to food preservation and came across your site on the small measures column on design sponge! we use zucchini in everything – soup, pancakes, muffins, stir fry! i would love to win the grater – i totally need one! thanks for the great giveaway!
Oh, so sorry about the squash borers! I hate those things. I have pretty much given up on growing winter squash because of them, and I start my zucchini & summer squash under a row cover because of them.
I like to make zucchini chips in the dehydrator–just slice pretty thin (I use a thin sharp knife, but you could also use a mandoline), sprinkle with salt, and dry til they’re crispy. You can use other seasonings, too–lemon pepper is a favorite, and some people like garlic or onion salt–but I prefer the flavor of the zukes with just a little salt.
I’ve also had some very fine pickles made with zucchini instead of cucumber.
Been waiting for something like this so I can throw actually grate not use a knife. I hope I win!
Zucchini bread or grilled zucchini with a dressing of olive oil, cumin, ed pepper flakes, lime juice, yum!
This would be incredibly helpful to me, and your post is so timely. I am sorry about your squash, mine are doing poorly this year, but still getting some… which is good, because I have discovered several great uses for squash as a pasta substitute. I can hopefully get some at the farmers market to supplement my own puny squash plant, and freeze a bunch to have all winter… I hope I am the lucky winner!
I’ve never tried freezing zuccini…will have to visit the farmers market and give it a try real soon.
I’ll give that a try! Just came home from the CSA with a ton of zucchini, but it’s too hot in Buffalo to bake zucchini bread or cook anything besides the briefest of sautees.
I love to make spicy squash/zucchini pickles.
Oh, with the squash borer–try using reemay or another protective cover after you’ve seeded the squash and until they’re about 4 inches high. Option B: you can try beneficial nematodes. I’m sure there are other methods out there that would work. Good luck next year!
As I’m growing “the zucchini that’s not a zucchini” (portofino green summer squash, from the Territorial Seeds catalogue), I have become a fan of zucchini pancakes. Fabulous! They’re very simple–grate a zucchini or two (or three), grate some onion, squeeze all the liquid out of the veggies, add an egg or two (as needed), and enough flour to make it come together (probably 1/4 cup or so). Saute in hot oil & enjoy.
The Dreaded Squash Vine Borer! It got my zucchinis, then pumpkins. I even tried to do the “surgery” on the vines for a while…but everntually those little buggers got the best of my vines. Sob!
My new favorite zucchini recipe is from the Moosewood Cookbook. Part of the fun is that they are called Zuc-canoes 🙂
A nice twist on stuffed zucchini–using a nice lemony-herb mixture, rather than the icky tomato and hamburg combo that my mother used to put into anything that didn’t move…
4 med Zucchini–cut lengthwise and scooped out to make your “canoe”, innards saved separately for the filling
1 Tblsp Olive oil
1 1/2 cups minced onion
1/2 pound mushrooms, diced
6 med cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1 1/2 cups almonds (minced or ground)
3 Tblsp lemon juice
black pepper, cayenne, salt, minced fresh herbs (basil, parsley, thyme) all to taste
1 c grated swiss cheese (optional)
Saute onion in olive oil until soft, add in minced innards of the “canoes” and mushrooms and cook most of the water out. Add in garlic until fragrant. In a large bowl, mix rice and almonds, stir in lemon juice and cooked mixture. Season to taste with seasonings listed above. Fill the zucchini “canoes” with the mixture, top with grated cheese (if using), and bake in 350 oven for 30-40 mins until heated through and cheese is bubbly. Yum!
I had the same problem w/ my zuchinni! I despise those dreaded critters! What can we do about them for next year?? Any suggestions??
That is a great idea for prepping and storing zucchini!
I just shredded a bunch of zucchini for the freezer using my food processor. But that microplaner looks great. Count me in!
I’ve made lots of zucchini bread and frozen that, but never just the zucchini in bags. I have made zucchini relish (tastes just like pickle relish) with a recipe that takes 10 cups of zucchini – that one helps clear out the fridge. I could use a new grater though… Thanks!
There are so many wonderful comments I couldn’t get through them all!
One of my favorite things growing up was, not surprisingly, zucchini bread. The recipe includes crushed pineapple, and you can find many variations just by searching online.
When I was recently in New Zealand, a friend brought bags and bags of wild walnuts to our retreat center, and of course, since it was summer, I had to make zucchini bread.
I love experimenting with all kinds of flours, and most stores in New Zealand offer all kinds (eg., buckwheat, rice, quinoa, millet, etc.), so I used a combination of these for the recipe (what I write below as “gluten free flour”).
Of course, the wild walnuts were superb; their flavor is just incredible, esp. when compared to the average walnut you buy at the store…hmm… can I grow a walnut tree in Pennsylvania, and would all of the nuts be eaten by the ubiquitous squirrels?
Anyway, here’s the recipe:
Ingredients:
Mix these ingredients in one bowl:
3/4 cup pure, raw sugar (more if you’d like it to be more sweet)
2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce (may need more if the batter is too dry)
1/3 cup canola oil
3 eggs
2 teaspoons (or a little more) pure vanilla extract
Mix the following ingredients well in a separate bowl:
2 cups gluten-free flour mix (“Pam’s” is often used)
1/2 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup oat bran
1 1/4 teaspoon guar gum
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
Gently mix the dry and wet ingredients together until just blended. Add:
2 cups shredded zucchini
1 can, partly strained, crushed pineapple
1 cup chopped wild walnuts
Make sure everything is mixed together without over-mixing.
Put in two medium-size loaf pans, or make a larger loaf and use the extra to make muffins. Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit (I think, while in NZ, I put the oven at 200 degrees celsius).
For the muffins, the time will be about 20 minutes, depending on how big they are.
For the loaf/loaves, the time again will depend on the size/s. For medium loaves, they may need 45 minutes; for large loaves, they may need up to an hour in the oven.
I test for doneness by seeing golden brown around the edges, and there is no “give” to the top/middle of the muffin/loaf.
Let the muffins/loaves rest in the pans for 10 minutes or so after you take them from the oven, and then transfer them to a rack to cool. These freeze well, too.
Sorry to hear about your zucchini plants being taken over by bugs. We’ve only harvested one zucchini this year, too, but hopefully, we’ll have a few more (from one plant).
We love our microplanes (the originals), too.
I steam 8 cups of it with a chopped onion and 1/2 can of Swanson’s chicken broth for 10-12 minutes, cool it, and stir in 2 cups of brown rice. In the middle of winter, I thaw and drain it well (really squish out the liquid) and finish off a Zucchini Rice Casserole from October 2002’s Cooking Light. Here is a link to the recipe:
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=522093
My favorite way to preserve zucchini is to grate and freeze it too! We trick our kids into eating it with buttered noodles. For some reason, they can’t even tell there’s squash there. Another favorite recipe is the curry zucchini bread from 101cookbooks.com.
I too put zucchini in the freezer or I dehydrate it. I also always try to put away a few jars of Hamburger Relish using zucchini instead of cucumbers. A famiy favorite..
I love Zucchini bread. Truly a great way to get some nutrition for not much money!
Having lots of fun with the “End of the Garden” pickle recipe in the Ball Blue Book to help corral the runaway yellow squash crop! Ginger, dry mustard, mustard seed, cinnamon… another week or so on the shelf to let the flavors marry, and then I’m sure we’ll be right into them. Would love to win the coarse microplane grater!!
I grated some of mine into 3-cup amounts (that’s what my zucchini cake recipe calls for), and froze. I also sliced some into 1/4-inch rounds, blanched, and froze. These will be for putting into stir-fries, or hiding in spaghetti sauce in the winter. My plants had no buggy problems, but they got powdery mildew, which I’ve treated with a milk solution. I’m hoping they might come back from it and produce a few more zukes for me this summer.
gosh, i love kitchen gadgets! My squash never gets preserved, what I can’t eat I give away to eager neighbors 🙂
Alas, I have no preservation tips — but I really want to try out the freezing grated courgette thing, that sounds incredibly handy. And I have a very good fine-grate Microplane that I use as a zester, so I’d be interested in trying out the coarse version!
Sorry… no tips here… but I do love those Microplanes 🙂
I love Microplanes!
Microplane huh? Not heard of it, but I seriously need an upgrade to my shakey box grader. It does have multiple settings on it, but I wanted to do sliced potatoes the other day and it wasn’t up for it. I do the same thing to my squash. It makes it so much easier to use later in the year. I’m really sorry about your squash plants. My pepper plants didn’t do well this year, but I have tomatoes out the ying yang. 🙂
Haven’t tried preserving zucchini though I do a lot of preserving. We like them halved, stuffed with pork mince flavoured with picked turnip, garlic, soy sauce and steamed as part of a Chinese meal.
Flattening out the filled bags before freezing (and laying them flat on the bottom of the freezer to harden) makes storing and finding so much easier.
I agree – although pickled zucchini can be tasty, there’s nothing better than being able to whip up zucchini bread or pancakes throughout the winter. Yum!
I’ve been needing a new grater. I love my Microplane zester; it does a number on citrus zest of course, but it’s also the perfect thing for shredding parmesan.
My troubles are the opposite of yours. Heaps of zucchini, and my grater just fell apart!
Ooh, I love Microplane, too! I’ve been getting lots of zucchini from the CSA and hope to freeze a bit for winter.
The squash vine borer destroyed my squash plants too. At least I’ve got plenty from the CSA.
I have been the victim of squash vine borer too many times. I’m too lazy of a gardener to do the suggested methods for dealing with it, so I now plant Tromboncino squash, a light green, mild summer squash that is resistant to the borer! Check it out: http://www.territorialseed.com/product/1100/220
Well … I had to throw out my grater. It was so old and rusty and I was afraid that I would grate my finger and need a tetanus shot. I do not have a recipe for zucchini, the only way my daughter and I like it is grilled…….. sorry. I am so dull.
I am definitely going to shred my extra summer squash now, thanks for the tip! And here’s hoping I win the grater…
I use it in zucchini breads, and put some in a veggie lasagna that I froze as well. Love your site!
I like to use zucchini in zucchini bread. Thanks for the give away!
Great giveaway! I’d love to win. I grate and freeze zucchini also — it makes for great sweet & spicy zucchini bread during the fall months, and I add a lot of it to pasta sauces and salads.
I’ve been freezing grated zucchini for years. Those ‘giant’ zucchini logs don’t scare me, and the fresh zucchini bread tastes great in January or February. I love new kitchen tools, so the grater would have a happy home.
Roberta
I am so excited to try this method of carrying summer squashes past first frost. I have a nice sweet/sour pickle recipe (refrigerator style – so short lifespan) but other than that, we just grill saute, grill, bake, fry and fritter until we can stand no more. then i thake the really fat ones and make lasagne noodles out of ’em.
would love to try that new grater!