I Say Zucchini, You Say Courgette
“Last night we had three small zucchini for dinner that were grown within fifty feet of our back door. I estimate they cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $371.49 each.” - Andy Rooney
No matter what you call them, the are terrific baked, sauteed, stuffed, grilled, pan or oven fried, baked into breads, eaten raw, a marvelous addition to soup, and terrifically low in calorie (only 20 calories in each cup!). You probably have several "go-to" recipes that you love to use when, at the height of the season, small mountains of zucchini appear in the garden. Lots of us make aromatic zucchini bread, but did you know that zucchini also makes a fantastic pasta replacement? It's also the perfect veggie to grate up and include inside a lot of things your kids love and get even the pickiest of eaters to consume a vegetable. Technically, zucchini is a fruit, but since it is treated by cooks everywhere as a vegetable and used in so many wonderful savory dishes, I’m going to throw caution to the wind and refer to it as a vegetable.
Most sources say you should eat zucchini within a few days of picking in order to maximize the nutrients and flavors. Now this is not always possible since, unless you grow them yourself or purchased them from a farmers market, you do not know when it was picked. So, just try to eat them soon after purchase and don't let them sit neglected in the back of the fridge or bottom of your vegetable bin until they begin to liquefy as I have done a few too many times when the lovely things became buried in the bin. Unfortunately, I’m not as skilled a gardener as Andy Rooney and have to either rely on the zucchini growing skills of my friends or the ability of the grocer to select a good source.
For a terrific and very fun food, learn to cook zucchini blossoms! The complete directions for fried zucchini blossoms can be found by those great people that find out all kinds of things at about.com. Blossoms can also be stuffed, sauteed, dropped into sauces, used to decorate pasta, and are marvelous in soup!
Some of the recipes below are the outstanding results of a recipe challenge at The CC Palate. The challenge - create a new recipe using zucchini and tomatoes - I hope you enjoy the results!
Buggy's Green and Yellow Zucchini Ribbons is a creative and particularly beautiful way to serve zucchini!
Ninav's method of turning simple zucchini into a replacement for pasta is superb!
You'll never tire of zucchinis no matter how many mountains of them you harvest if you make Hollie's Tomato Zucchini Souffle!
Susan's Boat Lasagna is yet another delicious take on the zucchini as replacement for pasta.
Susan's Zucchini Tomato Saute is fast, delicious, and takes advantage of sweet late summer corn (or frozen or canned as you don't have access to fresh ears of corn), try it today!
For a tasty zucchini blossom treat, try Vegetarian Times Goat Stuffed Zucchini Blossoms!
It's easy to get in a zucchini rut and make the same old recipe every time...that's not a bad thing, but it is why zucchinis can become a bit of a tiresome repeater at dinner until they finally stop producing. Expand your courgette repertoire! Depending on how you prepare them, you can literally eat as much as you want of zucchini and hardly dent your calorie counting total - which makes them perfect for many of us here at Calorie Count!
Your thoughts…
Do you grow your own zucchini or are you the willing recipient by those that dare plant the prolific vegetable? Have you eaten zucchini flowers, if so how were they prepared? What do you like to cook when you are snowed under in zucchini from the garden? Have you tried zucchini in place of pasta? Do you say zucchini or courgette? Share your favorite recipe!
Comments
You call them courgettes, I call them okra...I am an american living in the UK and they call both zucchini AND okra, courgettes!
You learn something new everyday! I did not know zucchini was classified as a fruit! I love zucchini, anyway you serve it up!
Here's a recipe for courgette & tomato curry with balsamic vinegar.
http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/recipe_display.php?id=13618
It's from a brilliant Indian food website. BTW, I'm in the UK and okra is okra here, not courgette. Not sure why anybody would confuse the two... 
I am English and live in the UK and I have never heard Okra referred to as courgettes. Ladies fingers - yes, but courgette - no.
We cut them into thing long slices, marinate in EVOO, balsamic vinegar a touch of salt, garlic and oregano and then grill on the BBQ. Once they're done we add just an extra bit of this dressing to them and they are FANTASTIC!
I recently developed a deep and abiding love of sausage stuffed baked zucchini. Heaven on a plate.
I always forget about zucchini. I'll have to remember to pick some up this weekend. Interesting recipes, I think I'll try the Boat Lasagna with lean ground beef.
I have a few favorite zucchini recipes-- This one is a beautiful salad with roasted zucchini, asparagus (sometimes I leave that out), tomatoes, almonds, feta, and a super light honey-lemon-vinaigrette on greens... yum yum. And this one is much simpler, zucchin ribbons: skinny summer squash.
It took me many a long year to come around to zucchini -- in large part because my mother would grate zucchini and put it into chocolate cake and then drizzle an orange glaze over it.
It may sound delicious to some adults, but to a child with "over-tasting" taste buds who could pick out bitter vegetable flavors, who could see the scraps of green zucchini in the chocolate cake, and who to this day dislikes the flavor combination of chocolate and orange . . . it was repulsive.
but eventually I dicovered the joys of stuffed zucchini and pan-fried zucchini and zucchini "linguini." And it turned me off of chocolate cake for life. ;)
I slice them long ways, throw them in my NewWave or on a grill and top with favorite seasoning- vola!!! My dad made an awesome recepie with zucchini, onions, tomato-homemade-sauce and sometimes chicken in a pot, and topped it on either brown rice or had oit as a side!!!! yummy
I slice 'em up 1/4" thick, lay them on cookie sheets sprayed w/ Pam, then sprinkle sea salt and grated mozzarella on them (use Morton Salt Substitute for a low-sodium / high potassium version). Bake 'em @ 375 until the cheese browns (about 18 - 20 mins) and you have a very yummy treat that the whole family enjoys. At our house even the kids line up with plates waiting for it to be done.
I have a few Italian friends who introduced me to a great recipe - Pasta with Zucchini (I don't remember the Italian name for it). It may be a good pasta substitute, but also a great pasta topping - and just a few ingredients for an easy recipe - sautee zucchini in olive oil and garlic, throw on pasta (I use penne, but it works with linguine, angel hair, just about anything) and top with parmesan. A lot of people add red pepper flakes, basil, mint, tomatoes, and lemon. Perfect, easy and delicious.
I've never ever seen them called ladies fingers? Maybe its where I live, I do not know, but when I first tried to find them, they were called courgettes *shrug*
Going camping this weekend. In my cooler are a bags of thick-cut, raw zucchini and carrot chips - will be using these to scoop up hummus. Yum!
Last time I was living somewhere where courgette and okra were both readily available, they were called courgette by the English-English speakers and zucchini by the American-English.
Okra are an entirely different thing, and they get called Lady's Fingers in the Caribbean, where I first came across them - probably because they're a lot smaller than even the smallest courgette and tapered. They look a bit like a faintly furry, oversized green chili pepper.
And I love okra and courgette. :) Courgette finely sliced and fried in a wok with a little oil and a couple of cloves of garlic is delicious, simple, and keeps the vampires away.
LOVE LOVE LOVE Courgettes! I would gladly eat them every day-I just love them roasted in the oven with a sprinking of herbs, Or grilled..Yumyum!!!
Original Post by: ihamiain my country we call this Patola...
hahaha, what is? courgettes, okra, zucchini??? all of the above??? 
lovely ellektra...im referring to courgettes or zucchini...
... a good dietary vegetable and perfect for a soup w/ oyster or shrimp...yummmy! 
Can't stand them (courgette, zucchini,lady fingers blah blah blah) for the life of me...and believe me I've tried
Original Post by: kungfumumI am English and live in the UK and I have never heard Okra referred to as courgettes. Ladies fingers - yes, but courgette - no.
Just sayin....I know this is an old post but I bought some today for a recipe
http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/community/userpics.php?coun t=86
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I stuff my zucchini with mashed up kidney beans, brown rice or quinoa, with onions, garlic, nutritional yeast and bread crumbs. Yum!
This chocolate zucchini cake is to die for
http://www.veganbaking.net/vegan-recipes/cakes/chocolate-zuc chini-mud-cake.html
Gluten free zucchini pancakes made with yummy delicious flax seeds instead of eggs so they are mega healthy too!
http://cleaneatingchelsey.blogspot.com/2010/06/vegan-zucchin i-pancakes.html