August 13, 2021

Zucchini-Ganoush- An Easy Vegan Zucchini Recipe

If your crisper drawers and counter tops are full, and you’re in need of an easy vegan zucchini recipe to help get through piles of produce, this zucchini-ganoush is going to be your next favorite thing! Creamy, silky, nutty, garlicky, lemony, fresh, and smoky, it’s great with toasted pita or as a dip to eat even more vegetables. This zucchini dip is our version of the classic eggplant dish, baba ganoush- and it works just as well with zucchini as it does with eggplant!

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Welcome to Zucchini Season!

If there’s a plant known for being hearty and prolific, it’s zucchini. A single plant can grow 10 pounds of zucchini, if not more! And with home gardeners bringing in pound after pound of homegrown produce, finding ways to eat through your bounty can be a challenge- all be it a delicious one. If you are planning on growing zucchini, stick to just one or two plants at first (and you may still be up to your neck in zucchini. If you’re buying zucchini, look at local farm stands and farmers markets for the freshest and best local options. Select zucchini that are firm, and relatively free from blemishes. With zucchini, size is important. The best zucchini are 6-8 inches long, although they are often sold much longer and have been known to reach as over 7 feet in length. But as zucchini grow super-sized, they loose their flavor and get a tougher texture. Many growers actually sell their larger zucchini for more money, but remember that with the fibrous and watery texure, you’re getting a zucchini that can really only be used for zucchini bread.

Looking for Vegan Zucchini Recipes (or summer squash)? Try one of these!

What is Baba Ganoush

Baba ganoush is a dish found in many middle eastern cuisines, which features eggplant, garlic, and tahini, pureed together in a smooth dip, usually served as an appetizer. It’s a really fun word to say- baba ganoush- although other spellings include “baba ghannouj”, “baba ghanouj”, and “baba ganoosh.” I was even more amused when I looked into the entomology of it. Baba translates to father or daddy, and ganoush comes from an Arabic word that means something like pampered. So the phrase baba ganoush means “spoiled daddy”- how wonderful is that? It’s thought that the name might make reference to being served to the sultan of a harem. The most classical pairing for baba ganoush is with toasted pita bread or raw vegetables, but it also works well as the dressing on a sandwich, or even to add a little flavor to your favorite salad. If you’ve really got a lot of zucchini on hand, you can always chop up some raw zucchini batons and dip them in your zucchini-ganoush!

How to Make Zucchini-Ganoush

This simple dip isn’t much work- it’s all about balancing the lemon, garlic, and tahini levels for ultimate deliciousness. But before we get to that, we have to cook our zucchini or summer squash (they both work perfectly well, but for simplicity’s sake I’ll just say zucchini from here on out). To get a bit of a smoky flavor in our dip, we cook the zucchini on a baking sheet, right under the broiler in our oven. I used one large zucchini, but if you have smaller ones you might need two. Leave it under the direct heat until the skin turns black, and then flip a quarter turn and repeat. If your squash is curved and unable to balance on every side, you might need to hold it in place with tongs for some of the time. After cooking it until the skin is charred on all four sides, the zucchini should be soft and mushy- I know, mushy is not the most appetizing word, but it’s an accurate one. Let it cool down so that you can touch it without burning your fingers, and then slice down the length and scoop out the flesh, leaving the burnt skin behind. Place the zucchini in a food processor along with the other ingredients, and process to combine. Taste and adjust the ingredients as needed. And that’s it- you’re ready to eat!

Zucchini-Ganoush- An Easy Vegan Zucchini Recipe

Ingredients

1.5 lb. zucchini or summer squash
2 cloves garlic
1/2 lemon, juiced
¼ cup parsley, loosely packed
3 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. tahini
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Turn the broiler of your oven on high. Place your zucchini or summer squash on a baking sheet, and transfer to the oven. Wait until most of the skin has blackened, and then turn your zucchini a quarter turn. Let the skin blacken, and turn, repeating and letting the skin burn on the remaining to sides so that most of the skin has burnt. The zucchini should also be fairly soft now. Remove from the oven and let cool.
Cut open the cooled zucchini, and scrape the flesh from the skin, discarding the burnt skins and transferring the cooked zucchini to a food processor. Add the lemon juice, garlic, parsley, olive oil, and tahini, and process until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper to your liking. Serve dip immediately, or refrigerate until consuming.

https://veryveganval.com/2021/08/13/zucchini-ganoush-an-easy-vegan-zucchini-recipe/

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