I first came into possession of Zucchini squash a few weeks ago, upon settling into my new apartment in Upstate, NY. My coworker had given me some as a gift, and I had no idea how to eat or prep it.
There was a lot of experimentation
In the subsequent weeks that followed, I experimented with all the Cooking methods I could think of. Some were baked, some were fried/stir-fried, some were slow-cooked/put into curry and stew. Also, some were wrapped, seasoned, and thrown into a campfire -- and one was chopped finely and put on a home-made taco.
The baked zucchini boats had a variety of different flavors.
One was teriyaki stir-fry, while another was Thai curry. I also made a pizza-themed one and a spicy, cheesy, chicken-stuffed boat. While baked zucchini was pretty good, it was difficult to finish an entire boat in one sitting by myself. As such, I preferred some of the other methods of cooking.
Fried/stir-fried zucchini squash involved chopping up the squash and putting it in a pan, which required more monitoring than baking did but came out just as amazing. There were less combinations of flavor that I could think of with this method, so not much of the squash got cooked this way. Of all the methods of cooking the zucchini, this was my least favorite.
Slow-cooked, stewed, or curried zucchini was the easiest form of cooking the zucchini for me.
All I had to do was dump in browned meat with other vegetables, seasoning, or sauce into the rice cooker, and let it slow-cook for a few hours. As a result, I ended up cooking most of the zucchini this way. The food turned out good, and I could eat it with rice, noodles, or bread. This was fantastic since these recipes always lasted me a few meals.
Meanwhile, cooking by campfire was by far my favorite method of cooking zucchini. I would cut it up, season it, wrap it in foil, and just throw it into the embers. Of course, I made sure that it got turned/rotated every so often. The zucchini would come out softened but would retain the wonderful flavor of smoky wood. Coincidentally, this was perfect to pair with leftover pasta that I wrapped and reheated using the same method.
The last thing I tried was tacos with zucchini on top. I finely chopped up part of it, and put it on top of the Chorizo sausage sitting in my freshly pan-fried tortilla. I piped some lime juice-infused avocado puree on it and added some salsa. I couldn't believe I had not tried it sooner. If campfires weren't a thing, this would be my first choice for cooking zucchini -- even though it's technically not "cooked" in this case.
What's next?
There were some interesting recipes that I did not get a chance to try, including zucchini bread, deep-fried zucchini sticks, zucchini salad, pizza, and vegetable shakes/smoothies.
