In the realm of not wasting food, i have been curious what could be done with those giant zucchini leaves? We eat kale, swiss chard, and more. What about those giant things that the zucchini grows under?
I did some research on the interwebs and it was not promising. How could that be so? The interwebs have so much crazy stuff, how could this not be a things others have tried.
What i did find said only the smaller, younger leaves were worth using. Hmm… Then i found another small reddit post that, the bigger ones were fine, not bitter, kind of like boc choi… ok… more promising.
I had the hubby pick me a bunch, i washed them off, dried them, scrubbed the spines off the stems, cut the stems off (that is an experiment for another day), and then cut up the leaves into squares.
I put some evoo (butter flavor) in the pan, threw in the leaves, and then some garlic. Surprisingly there is not any water that sweats from the leaves. So you need enough oil or cooking spray to keep things moving along. (weird).
I cooked them up to a nice bit of shivled-ness. Tasted and it was a reasonable taste, a bit oregany or maybe sausagy? i dunno – it was hard to describe.
Since it was a good flavor I decided to take a frittata recipe i normally used for mushrooms and put the base in this one. (I did forget one step – remove the greens, wipe down the pan and respray… doh)
It turned out well, and a quick broil brought it to an amazing finish! Hubby had also brought in a tiny zucchini that i used as a topper for the frittata!
Zucchini leaf frittata
Ingredients
- 10 large zucchini leaves (washed, stems removed and saved for later, sliced and cut into bite size pieces)
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese – shredded
- 3 egg whites
- 2 eggs
- (or 6 eggs worth of eggs in a box)
Instructions
- Preheat broiler.
- Wrap pan handle in foil to protect it in the oven (optional)
- Saute zucchini leaves and garlic in a pan with 1-3 tbl evoo
- Place leaves in a medium bowl; cool slightly.
- Wipe pan clean with paper towels.
- Combine cheese, 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 1/8 teaspoon salt, eggs in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk.
- Add cooked leaves
- Heat pan over medium heat.
- Coat pan with cooking spray.
- Add egg mixture; cook, for 3 minutes or until almost set.
- Broil 3 minutes or until egg is set.
- Cut into 4 wedges.
Verdict: So much better than anticipated! And such a great way to waste your garden lovelies!
Will definitely try it again! perhaps add some spinach or use the zucchini recipe with mozzarella. So much run to be had!
If you try this please let me know what you think!
