How To Use Up The Zucchini

There’s so much zucchini. And I hate zucchini. I hate it even when you call it “courgette” so don’t try any of that fancy french crap on me. I got four zucchini in my Misfits Market (I’ll review them later) box this week and even if I liked the vegetable I’d be hard pressed to finish that much of it. After giving three of them to a friend I found myself still in possession of one goddamned zucchini and decided the only acceptable way to consume it was in bread format. This recipe is adapted from something I found on The New York Times website that I didn’t entirely have ingredients for. I baked it, thought it was done, realized it wasn’t then put it back in to the oven to try to correct my mistake. I hope you fare better than I did. My oven and I are still getting used to each other. It’s fine. My version of excellent zucchini bread to make on a Sunday afternoon and have for breakfast during the week is as follows:

Artifacts left over from when I figured out it wasn’t done.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups shredded (and extremely well drained) zucchini

1/2 cup coconut sugar (I use this a substitute for regular sugar)

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup Greek yogurt

2 eggs

a dash or two of vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

pinch-ish of salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 heaping tablespoon cinnamon

a few dashes of pumpkin pie spice (use nutmeg instead if you have it, I didn’t)

some lemon zest

1/2 cup slivered almonds or any other random chopped nut you want

*If you want to be fancy you can put a few narrow strips of zucchini achieved with a peeler on the top of the bread before it goes in the oven. Totally optional and a bit pompous but I enjoy it.

Mix all wet ingredients in one bowl, all dry ingredients in another. Combine, and pour into a well-greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake it about 30 minutes more. When a knife comes out clean, you’re done. Don’t stress out about the edges being overdone, better over-crispy edges than a raw center, trust me.

Let it cool completely before tasting or Instagramming. Best enjoyed lightly toasted with vegan butter or cream cheese if you’re me.