14 Great Summer Squash & Zucchini Recipes
Have a summer squash overload? Here are more than a dozen tasty recipes that aren’t the usual
Swimming in summer squash? Here are a few recipes to try
It’s an all too familiar story – you planted a couple of summer squash (or zucchini) plants a few weeks ago thinking it’d be nice to have some garden-fresh veggies. Squash being the crazy productive plant it is, however, you soon find yourself awash in a sea of squash.
Sure, you can give some to friends and co-workers, but there are only so many of them. Plus, a lot of them probably have the same squash overload problem you do. Not wanting the literal fruits of your labor to go to waste, you’re left to come up with clever ways to eat them.
This is a problem I have every year.
I love my husband, but the man couldn’t estimate the number of squash one family can eat in a week if his life depended on it. From mid-June to late October overwhelmed with nearly every type of squash imaginable (and a few you can’t). Right now there’s a wheelbarrow’s worth of yellow squash and zucchini sitting outside my kitchen window, all calling me to come up with creative ways to use them in meals. Sometimes I feel like Bubba Blue from Forrest Gump ticking off all the ways I know how to cook squash –“…there’s boiled squash, fried squash, grilled squash, squash salad, squash sandwich…”
While I am not that creative as a cook, I do like to collect old cookbooks – especially the homespun cookbooks hand-published by churches, clubs, and other organizations as a fundraiser. These little books can be very regional, especially the ones from before WWII, and often have recipes that would never make it in a commercial, mass-produced cookbook (fried squirrel is a thing).
As it turns out, they’re also a great source of foods that went by the wayside after supermarkets and refrigeration replaced them with mass-produced convenience items. This includes an incredible number of squash recipes.
Over the years I’ve tried at least 60 different squash recipes for everything from dips to desserts. A lot are good, but a few were real standouts. I’m sharing my top 14 here so you don’t have to go all Bubba Blue like I did.
Summer Squash & Zucchini Recipes
Author’s Note: While I refer to summer squash and/or zucchini, the two are more or less interchangeable in these recipes. Feel free to swap your squash for what ever kind you prefer or happen to have in the garden right now.
Starters & Snacks
Calabacitas is a zesty combo of squash, jalapeño and corn
- Avocado-Mushroom-Zucchini Salad
- French Fried Squash Sticks
- Spicy Summer Squash Dip
- Summer Squash Appetizer
Side Dishes
Main Dishes
- Layered Zucchini Bake
- Scallop Squash Stuffed with Pesto Chicken
- Squash-Tomato Cassoulet
- Stuffed Summer Squash
- Ultimate Stuffed Zucchini
Desserts
A summer treat from the garden, scallop squash stuffed with pesto chicken
Have a great squash recipe? Share it with us in the comments below! ↓
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