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Waaaaay back when we started this blog, I posted zucchini nuggets. I made those all the time that fall, and then they kind of fell by the wayside. I found myself once again with some lonely, unused zucchini in my veggie drawer the other night, so I thought of those nuggets. I revamped the recipe this time around, largely because I had run out of Panko bread crumbs, also because I had more zucchini to use up. These were just as big a hit with the girls as the originals - served alongside some home-baked sweet potato fries, these made a great "fries and nuggets" dinner!
I used homemade bread crumbs for these. No one in our family really loves the crusty ends of loaves of breads (or "bread bums", as we call them), so I collect them in a bag in the freezer. When I need bread crumbs, I whirl up a few "bums" in our food processor - and voila, I have coarse, whole wheat bread crumbs!
Zucchini Nuggets, Take Two
3 small zucchini, grated
2 cups coarse bread crumbs
2 Tbsp flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup cheese (cheddar, jack, whatever you like)
canola oil for frying
In a large bowl, combine zucchini, crumbs, flour, eggs, and cheese. You want the mixture to have a meatball-like quality to it.
Heat up a small amount of canola oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat. Gather up scoops of the zucchini mixture, slightly smaller than a golf ball. Mush the ball in your hands a few times until the mixture is really holding together, and then flatten into a nugget shape. After all the nuggets are formed, cook them in batches.
I cooked them "low and slow" - about 4 to 5 minutes per side, over medium-low heat - to let them get nice and golden. This made about 24 nuggets.
6 comments:
Kara, this is a great post - I am definitely going to try the zucchini nugget recipe, but I also love the tip about saving the ends of the bread - I always struggle with finding healthy breadcrumbs, and we go through loaves of bread like crazy, so this is perfect! One question - how do you make sweet potato fries? I generally just toss in olive oil and bake, but they always come out soggy...wondering if you know how to make them actually resemble fries :)
YUM! These look fantastic!
Hi Alissa! I feel like sweet potato fries are the hardest thing to do at home. What I tried this last time, that I really liked, was to cut them small (size of a fast-food french fry), spray them with a little oil, and then bake them on a wire rack set over a baking sheet. I started them around 425F and then brought it down to 350F to let them get soft inside. Unfortunately, I didn't keep much track of times - they turned out better than usual, so I'll try to recreate it. I definitely think baking them on a wire rack was key, as they could get baked all over without having to do flipping.
Yummmy!! Also, the idea of using the heels (as we called them growing up) of the bread for breadcrumbs--great idea! Thanks!
These look awesome! Have you tried freezing leftovers?
Yum, these are really good. We didn't have any cheese, but they still turned out delicious. My son loved them, just gobbled it up and so did my husband. They were really fast to make too. Thank you!
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