I am always looking for new ways to make zucchini, since it is a popular vegetable with the picky eaters in the house. We first started our love affair with the dark green squash with restaurant zucchini fritti. Of course we love that one – deep fried zucchini topped with Parmesan cheese – but I am not going to make it at home. As I have mentioned before, I have never deep-fried anything and when I do it is going to be a doughnut, not a vegetable.
The latest recipe is our attempt to mirror restaurant zucchini fritti without the deep fryer. Restaurant zucchini usually has some type of coating, though not a full breading. I have seen recipes for using egg and breadcrumbs to bread the zucchini, but I don’t want to put that much work into a side dish, and I don’t like to disguise a vegetable quite that much. I settled on dredging the slices in flour with a little added garlic powder and salt.
I used my new mandolin (thanks to Rich’s mom) to slice the zucchini the long way. I am already looking for other things to slice. When I asked for the mandolin for Christmas I thought maybe I was indulging myself too much, since I already have a food processor and not a lot of cabinet space. But I love my new tool and am already thinking of new things to slice.
Our attempt to make oven baked zucchini fritti was a success the first try. We had it again last night and I think it will become a part of the side dish rotation, at least until we think of another new zucchini recipe.
Download or print recipe here.
Oven Crisped Zucchini
From The Cook’s Life
Serves 2-3
2-3 tablespoons olive oil, approximately, divided
½ cup flour, approximately
garlic powder
salt
2 medium zucchini, sliced vertically into long, thin slices
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese, approximately
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease two baking sheets with olive oil and set aside.
Mix flour with a few shakes of garlic powder and salt. Dredge zucchini slices in the flour to lightly cover both sides. Don’t make the coating too thick. Arrange coated zucchini in a single layer on baking sheets. Drizzle slices with additional olive oil.
Bake zucchini for 10 minutes. Remove sheets from oven and turn slices over. Drizzle with a little olive oil if slices seem dry. Return pans to oven for 5 minutes. Remove any browned, crispy slices to a plate and return pans to oven for less crispy slices to finish cooking. Watch carefully at this point, as the zucchini can get too brown in no time.
Serve hot, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.
The Cook's Life 
These look so good!
Most vegetable preparations that can be called “chips” are successful at my house, do you think these would fly? They sound great to me! 🙂 Have fun with that mandolin–I like mine most for julienneing.
You might have to cut the strips in half before baking for them to get all the way crispy. As you can see from the picture, the ends are browner. And you can see one that folded over itself, since it wasn’t crispy. I would say about half of the strips were crispy enough to qualify as chips. Calvin gravitated toward those and we were left with the less crispy pieces.
I am going to try the mandolin’s julienne feature soon on potatoes for oven fries. What veggies to you julienne the most? Hmmm, wonder if I could make zucchini fries?
I like to julienne carrots, cukes, etc. for salads or spring rolls. I like the texture more than grated, which gets mushy. I think zucchini fries would be too thick to crisp up, but I might try slicing the zucs into rounds for chips!
I will have to experiment with julienning with the mandolin!
I have done the rounds into zucchini chips. They work very well. If you are looking for the post, it is titled, “Parmesan Crusted Zucchini Chips.” https://thecookslife.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/parmesan-crusted-zucchini-chips/
That’s a great idea, very tasty looking.
Now be very careful w/that mandolin – BAM over in Hong Kong with getting by w/only 9 fingers for another few weeks.
Great idea! I will definitely be trying this out soon. Thanks!