9 Zucchini & Summer Squash Recipes

We didn’t do a garden this year (fingers crossed for next year!) but my parents did and they have been nice enough to share with us. They had a good yield including lots of zucchini and summer squash and seeing other people’s social media garden posts it seems they are not the only ones! 

A good zucchini bread is always a hit but I wanted to find some more recipe ideas that used zucchini. I searched around on Pinterest and saved all the recipes I was interested in trying – both savory and sweet. For the past few weeks I’ve been trying many of them out so I could share which ones we liked in hopes you would like them too. The recipes are dairy free, or easily substituted to be, but most used eggs.

I made these recipes with fresh produce but they would work with frozen as well which is great if you ended up with enough to freeze for later like we did.  Both zucchini and summer squash are easily frozen as they don’t require blanching or special treatment other than to decide if you want them chopped, shredded or sliced. I have been doing a combination of all three so they can be easily added to different types of recipes or meals.

One of the things I was happy to learn during all of this was that zucchini and summer squash can be used interchangeably in recipes. For the recipes I made, I used a combination of both just to try it out and didn’t notice any problems with that at all.

1.Chocolate Cake

This is a very moist and super yummy cupcake or cake recipe that can be altered for various diet restrictions/preferences. Jean also includes a recipe for lemon frosting that looks wonderful, although I’ve never tried it and have still really enjoyed the cake.

https://www.extrapetite.com/2020/04/moist-chocolate-zucchini-cake-recipe-dairy-free.html

2.Veggie Fritatta

We have really enjoyed making frittatas as a quick and protein packed meal that also gets veggies in us – a great way to use up any leftover vegetables you may have in the fridge. I made it using potatoes, summer squash and zucchini and onions and it was super good!

Frittata https://nestingwithgrace.com/quick-healthy-dinners-favorite-things-trader-joes/

3.Zucchini Pickles

I just had to try this when I saw it- what a creative use for zucchini and summer squash! My squash must have been big because I ended up needing to make another batch of the brine to have enough but it was easy enough to do and turned out good.

recipe https://www.rebootedmom.com/zucchini-pickles-recipe/

4.Salsa Verde

This was another one that I was really excited to try out. It tasted very fresh and is easily modified to ones particular “heat” preference. We used it on our squash quesadillas which I will link next!

http://www.somuchtomake.com/2014/08/zucchini-salsa-verde-canned-or.html?m=1

5. Grilled Cumin-Lime Quesadilla

The best part of this recipe was the marinade for the squash, which we will definitely be doing again. However, I would skip the hassle of making a quesadilla and just make burritos with the salsa verde on the side. Preparing the squash for this was really easy and flavorful.

https://naturallyella.com/grilled-cumin-lime-zucchini-quesadilla/amp/

6.Cinnamon Swirl Bread

This was definitely our favorite new sweet recipe I made. It has a nice crunchy cinnamon crust on top and just was overall a good cinnamon flavor.

https://deliciouslycooking.com/cinnamon-swirl-zucchini-bread-with-gluten-free-option.php

7.Carrot and Zucchini Muffins

I was happy to find a less dessert-like muffin recipe that the kids enjoyed. These are very tasty and they contain carrots as well as the squash giving them an extra punch of nutrition. I used a mini muffin pan which turned out to be a waste of time because the kids ate several at a time anyways. Next time I would just make them regular sized. The recipe says that they freeze nicely as well which is a bonus!

https://meaningfuleats.com/carrot-zucchini-toddler-muffinss-gluten-free-dairy-free/

8.Summer Zucchini Corn Chowder

This was the favorite of the savory recipes in the roundup for sure. A delicious take on chowder that is easily made dairy free and full of seasonal veggies. We left out the bacon but would have enjoyed a vegetarian variety added in. I added the smoked paprika per the instruction variations given and that was really yummy.

https://www.littlebroken.com/summer-fresh-corn-and-zucchini-chowder/

9.Blueberry Zucchini Bread

Another tasty sweet bread but this time with blueberries and some cinnamon. It called for fresh blueberries but I used frozen and it turned out good.

I also have these recipes in my Pinterest board along with some others that looked promising. If you try any of them out or have some good recipe ideas of your own let me know!