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What to do with a zucchini baseball bat on a hot day?

Recipe: Fresh zucchini slaw makes use of giant squash

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED JUN 20, 2021

Plate with mound of zucchini slaw — Zucchini slaw is garnished with strips of more zucchini. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)

It’s too hot to cook. And suddenly we have a bounty of zucchini.

In our gardens, all that heat made early squash seem to explode in size (especially if we remembered to water).

What to do with a zucchini baseball bat?

Shred it. Those fast-growing giants haven’t had time to get tough; just remove any seeds. Shredded zucchini adds fiber, flavor and moisture to all sorts of dishes, from zucchini bread to casseroles to salads.

This cool slaw gets its crunch from carrots and its zing from grated onions, complementing the raw zucchini. A creamy dressing ties it all together.

The characteristic that makes shredded zucchini so useful in baking – its high moisture content – can be a drawback in a fresh salad. Pat dry shredded zucchini between two paper towels. For best results, do it twice.

No zucchini baseball bats? This salad works great with small zucchini, too.

Fresh zucchini slaw
Makes 2 servings (recipe can be multiplied as needed)

Ingredients:

2 cups raw zucchini, shredded and patted dry
½ cup carrots, shredded
3 tablespoons onion, grated

For dressing:
2 to 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon red or white wine vinegar
½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 dashes Tabasco
Seasoning salt to taste (about ¼ teaspoon)
½ teaspoon sugar

Large zucchini — Zucchinis quickly grow to baseball-bat size in hot weather.

Instructions:

Shred zucchini, discarding any seeds; no peeling necessary. Once it's shredded, pat the zucchini dry between paper towels to remove as much moisture as possible.

In a bowl, toss together shredded zucchini, carrot and onion.

In a separate bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, seasoning salt and sugar until blended. Drizzle dressing over vegetables and toss lightly until coated.

Serve immediately.

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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipes Sacramento cooking produce management zucchini gardening vegetables heat summer vegetables backyard produce farm to fork summer squash summer

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Garden checklist for week of Aug. 2

Get out early in the morning and monitor your garden’s moisture needs. Deep water and add temporary shade structures for plants that are feeling a little burned. In particular, protect developing peppers and eggplant.

* Put off fertilization until this heat passes; plants need to concentrate on hydration instead of growth.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don’t let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Pinch off dead flowers from perennials and annuals to lengthen their summer bloom.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips. Make sure to keep seeds and seedlings consistently moist.

* Plant potatoes.

Send us a gardening question, a post suggestion or information about an upcoming event. sacdigsgardening@gmail.com

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