Turning zucchini abundance into no-fry fries

Recipe for cheesy zucchini fries with smoked paprika dipping sauce

8/19/2014
BY SARA MOULTON
ASSOCIATED PRESS
  • Food-Healthy-Zucchini-Fries

    Cheesy zucchini fries with paprika dipping sauce.

    ASSOCIATED PRESS

    • Cheesy zucchini fries with paprika dipping sauce.
    Cheesy zucchini fries with paprika dipping sauce.

    Those darn zucchini! There’s an army of them occupying your garden right now and each one is as big as a blimp.

    What if I told you there’s a way to transform the whole lot of them into a delicious dish resembling french fries, but without all the calories? The secret involves cutting your zucchini into fry-like sticks, then cooking them in a way that delivers that signature crunch, but without the deep-frying.

    To start, you toast up some panko breadcrumbs in a dry skillet, which ensures that the finished product — the breaded zucchini — has the toasted taste and color that everyone loves. Then you mix them with freshly-grated Parmesan cheese, which not only contributes to that golden hue, it also makes everything taste better.

    By the way, the amount of cheese you’ll end up with depends on which tool you use to grate it. Cheese grated on a fine wand-style grater has two-thirds more volume than cheese grated on the fine side of a box grater. I used a wand grater, which is how I came up with the 5 tablespoons of grated cheese used in this recipe. Using a box grater, you’ll only need 1 1/​2 to 2 tablespoons.

    The crumb mixture is glued to the zucchini sticks using a basic breading technique. You dip them first in flour, then egg, then the breadcrumbs. If you skip the flour, the crumbs have a tendency to fall off.  

     

    RECIPE:

    Cheesy Zucchini Fries with Smoked Paprika Dipping Sauce

    • 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
    • 5 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
    • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
    • 1/​3 cup all-purpose flour
    • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
    • Salt and ground black pepper
    • 1 large egg, beaten lightly with 1 tablespoon water
    • 3/​4 pound zucchini, peeled and cut into 16 equal sticks
    • 1/​4 cup light mayonnaise
    • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
    • 1/​2 teaspoon minced garlic
    • 1/​2 teaspoon hot smoked paprika

    Heat the oven to 450 F. Coat a rimmed baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray.

    In a large skillet over medium heat, cook the panko, stirring frequently, until toasted, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a shallow bowl and stir in the Parmesan and the oil.

    In another shallow bowl, combine the flour with the garlic powder, then season it with salt and pepper. In a third shallow bowl place the egg mixture.

    Working with several zucchini sticks at a time, toss them in the flour, shaking off the excess. Add the flour-coated zucchini to the egg mixture and toss to coat well, letting the excess egg drip off. Finally, place them in the panko mixture, tossing to make sure they are coated well on all sides. Arrange the fully coated zucchini sticks in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.

    Bake, turning once, until golden and tender, about 8 minutes.

    While the zucchini is baking, in a small bowl stir together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, garlic and paprika. Season with and salt and pepper. Sprinkle the cooked zucchini lightly with salt and pepper, then transfer to a platter and serve immediately with the sauce.

    Yield: 4 servings.

    Source: Sara Moulton.