What To Do With Zucchini

Everyone (maybe?) complains about having too much zucchini.

There are jokes about people giving away zucchini to get rid of it. People find “creative ways” to use zucchini: cookies, bread, etc. People “don’t like” zucchini.

But I love zucchini. Specifically, I LOVE Black Beauty Zucchini and recommend this variety for your garden. It’s prolific (like most zucchini plants) AND flavorful. It really has a nice taste. It’s not seedless, but there is more meat than seeds. We purchased our seeds from Hudson Valley Seed Company (link).

Still, our two plants have been producing a lot of zucchinis frequently. Faster than we can eat them, actually. We’ve shared some, of course, but a goal with this garden is to put up food for over winter use, too. So, I looked up the best way to put up zucchini and it seems as though freezing cubed zucchini is the way to go!

I followed this advice found on The Kitchn (link) and plan on having many packages of frozen zucchini cubes to add to soups, pasta sauce, and anything else that makes good sense.

Cube it up into about 1-inch pieces.

Blanch in boiling water for one minute (DO NOT USE SALT) and then plunge pieces into ice-cold water to stop the cooking. Drain.

Put the blanched cubes in one layer on a plastic wrap-covered cookie sheet. Don’t use waxed paper… trust me on this one. You might need to use several cookie sheets at a time. (You can stack the cookie sheets on top of each other by placing a ramekin in the center of each sheet.) Now into the freezer until frozen solid!

Brilliant idea to freeze as cubes and THEN put cubes into bags.

Then back into the freezer (in their own bags) until needed this winter!

On another note, I have to share tonight’s dinner. Potatoes, zucchini, and beans from our garden. Venison from Dad. 🙂

Life is good.