New Foods Made Easy: Fried Zucchini

At ALEC, we are all about encouraging the kids to try new foods.  Sometimes the kids try new foods with enthusiasm and sometimes it is met with resistance.  Fried Zucchini was one of those foods.

This picture perfectly captures how many of the kids felt at first about trying fried zucchini, but in the end almost everyone tried, and liked fried zucchini! Success! Fried zucchini is super easy to make and is something you can easily make with your kids! Here's how its done:

Step 1: Gather all your ingredients: Zucchini, Oil, Garlic Powder, Oregano, Parsley, Bread Crumbs, Milk and Eggs.  Our zucchini's came from Amber's awesome garden!

Step 2: Chop up that zucchini! When you're cutting up your zucchini, be sure to cut them on the thinner side so that they will fry well in the oil.

Step 3: The number of eggs you need will vary depending on how much fried zucchini you plan on making.  We used about 3 eggs for the 2 zucchini's we had.  Crack your eggs into a bowl and whisk them up.  Also, add some milk into the egg mixture so the breading will stick to the zucchini better.  We forgot to do that! Oops! The breading stuck pretty well but would have been better off with the milk.

Step 4: Making your breading.  We took bread crumbs, garlic powder, oregano and parsley and put it in the blender to make a nice and fine breading.  Now the garlic powder, oregano and parsley are optional and the amount, again, depends on how much you are making and how strong of a flavor you want your breading to have.  We made ours pretty mild since the kids tend to be apprehensive about trying new foods.

Step 5: Pour about an inch or so of oil in the skillet and turn on the stove.  You want the oil to start heating up and be ready to fry the zucchini.

When we make the kids their snack, we like to get them involved to get them more excited about cooking and trying new foods.  They love helping out and being involved in cooking!

Step 6:  Next, take your zucchini slices and place them in the egg mixture.  Make sure that the slice is covered and that the excess egg mixture has dripped off before transferring it to the breading.  Completely cover zucchini slice in the breading, but make sure there isn't too much breading on it or else it won't fry all the way! Place slices on a plate.  Continue this process until all the zucchini is breaded and ready to be fried!

Step 7: While you were breading your zucchini, the oil was heating up and getting ready for frying.  Depending on how big your skillet is, you can place a couple of pieces of zucchini in the oil at one time.  You want to leave the side of the zucchini in the oil until it is a nice golden brown and you can use a spatula or tongs to check.  Once the first side is golden brown, flip the piece of zucchini so the other side can fry. Once both sides of the zucchini are fried, remove from oil and put on a plate.  Continue until all the zucchini has been fried.

Step 8: Time to serve! We served our fried zucchini with a little bit of marinara sauce to dip in! You can use marinara sauce as well, a different kind of sauce or dressing or even just plain!

Enjoy!!

- Jen