It’s summer squash season! My fridge overfloweth with fresh zucchini, patty-pan squash, little yellow thingies, green fuzzy thingies, and all the other varieties I can’t even name. And this week, I found a great option to use them. They’re packed with greens (and “greens,” since some of my squash is yellow), pretty easy to make (~30 minutes of prep + 20 minutes of baking; no pre-cooking of ingredients), and — huge bonus — my toddler likes them!
This is a great recipe from A Canadian Foodie, which I’m only reposting here to both note some hacks and changes I made (more herbs; baked instead of fried), and also to remove instructions from the original recipe that call for some kind of magic chopping device. Credit for developing this recipe is entirely due to Valerie over at acanadianfoodie.com!
I used French sheep’s-milk feta in this, which was absolutely delicious. If you wanted to make it low-lactose, I think goat feta or chèvre would also work great; if vegan, Daiya mozzarella shreds would also be great (in which case I might want to serve it with sour cream on the side — something I thought I’d want for the original recipe, but found to be totally unnecessary with all that delicious creamy feta inside).
I served this alongside a fantastic and easy halibut fillet (3/4 lb. for our family of 1 grown man, 1 hungry woman, and 1 somewhat-picky 3-year-old), which I finished in the oven (at 450°F, to bake alongside the croquettes) until the temperature read 190/200°F on my amazing fish thermometer (okay, technically a “meat” thermometer, but since fish is the only kind of meat I make, I choose to call it a fish one).
For future experimentation, it might be fun to toss some cooked spinach into these as well. It might be easiest to get frozen, since that’s already essentially steamed (right?). I’m not sure if one would need to adjust the flour/egg quantities to accommodate more veggies.
Finally, please excuse the photos — I snapped a couple of quick ones on my phone as the croquettes came out of the oven, but since I was making these in a TOTALLY SAFE MANNER with the baby in his bouncer on the countertop (while the 3-year-old mercifully read quietly to himself in the next room), I didn’t exactly prioritize breaking out the fancy light and m4/3 camera to shoot it properly. Next time. 🙂
PrintZucchini Croquettes
This is an easy way to use lots of zucchini or summer squash, with the added bonus that it’s extremely toddler-friendly!
Ingredients
- 750g zucchini or summer squash
- 1 large white onion (250g)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- Handful (~1/4 C) fresh dill
- Handful (~1/4 C) fresh mint
- Handful (~1/4 C) parsley
- 4 green onions
- 2 large eggs
- 100 g French sheep’s milk feta
- ½ C flour
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Shred the zucchini. I like to do this in my food processer with the shredding disk for ultimate speed, but this can also be done by hand.
- Dice the onion.
- Toss the zucchini and onion with the salt, and transfer to a sieve or colander. Set this aside for 30 minutes to sweat while you get everything else ready (and perhaps start your halibut marinating, if you’re going to serve that as well).
- Finely chop the herbs, and chop the green onions. Put these in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg, and beat it all together.
- Preheat oven to 450°F
- Once the zucchini and onion are done sweating, first press some liquid out the bottom of the sieve, and then transfer it all to a tea towel to squeeze as much moisture as possible out of it (there will be a surprisingly large amount).
- Add the zucchini-onion mixture into the bowl with the eggs and herbs. Add freshly ground black pepper to taste, flour, and feta. Combine well by hand.
- Form into patties of desired size (I got 9 big ones; the original recipe calls for 24 (!) small ones). Place on parchment-covered baking sheet. If you have time, refrigerate them until cold (you can also freeze them at this point); if you don’t, it didn’t seem to matter much when I baked them.
- Bake at 450°F for about 20 minutes. If you remember, flip them once halfway through; if you forget, just flip them over to show off their nicely-browned sides when you serve them.
Notes
You could easily substitute either goat’s milk feta, chèvre, or even Daiya mozzarella shreds for the sheep’s milk feta.
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