21 Grated Zucchini Recipes to Use Up Your Bumper Crop

A stack of zucchini fritters being topped with sauce.
Cambrea Bakes

Home cooks, food writers, and backyard gardeners may joke about the abundance of zucchini each summer, but sometimes it's not so funny when you're staring at a mountain of squash on your kitchen counter and no new ideas for how to use them.

We're here to make zucchini fun again with these 21 recipes. Yes, there's zucchini bread and muffins. There's quiche and a gratin. But there are also unexpected recipes like turkey meatloaf and a creamy one-pot pasta you're going to want to make right away.

Each of these recipes starts with a good amount of shredded zucchini to help you use up the abundance, and maybe sneak some veggies into your meals as well.

Zucchini Fritters

A bowl of zucchini fritters set on a white background.
Cambrea Bakes

Can any food with the word fritter in it not be enticing? We think not. These fritters are full of shredded zucchini, flour, green onion, herbs, and lemon, with an egg to bind them together. Gently fried, they come out crispy and oh-so-yummy. A sour cream and minced garlic dipping sauce ups that yum factor!

Cream Cheese Zucchini Muffins

Cream Cheese Zucchini Muffins With One Cut in Half, All on a Cooling Rack
Simply Recipes / Mark Beahm

Can you improve on the perfection that's a zucchini muffin, flavored with the warm spices of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger? It's tough, but adding a cream cheese center takes them up a delicious notch.

Zucchini Chocolate Chip Bread

Platter of Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread With Slices Cut Out and Cascading onto the Platter With a Kitchen Towel Underneath
Simply Recipes / Mark Beahm

Shred zucchini. Mix the shreds into a quick bread batter. Stir in tons of chocolate chips. Bake. No one will be able to resist this delightfully fluffy and moist chocolate chip zucchini bread that works for breakfast or as a snack.

Zucchini Tomato Quiche

zucchini tomato quiche in a glass pie plate on a marble counter top
Elise Bauer

This quiche says summer, summer, summer. Zucchini, tomatoes, and basil are plentiful at the same time during the growing season. Use up what's in your garden, what you bought at the farmers market, or what was super fresh at the grocery store to make this quiche in an all-butter crust. (Or go ahead and use a pre-made crust. It will still be one of your fave quiches ever!)

Turkey Zucchini Burger

Turkey Zucchini Burger with Garlic Mayo
Elise Bauer

Make your turkey burger juicy by adding shredded zucchini. Give it some zing on a bun with the smear of garlic mayo that's so simple to make. Just add garlic to mayo!

Grandma's Zucchini Cake

A plated square slice of zucchini cake with cream cheese frosting
Simply Recipes / Elise Bauer

Grandmas make the best cakes, don't they? This sheet cake recipe, from a grandmother of course, is full of moist zucchini, warm spices, nuts, and raisins. It's topped with a hard-to-resist cream cheese frosting. Take it to your next potluck or BBQ and watch it disappear.

Zucchini-Feta Frittata

zucchini frittata in a glass pie plate with a white cloth
Sheryl Julian

This frittata, made with shredded zucchini, potatoes, feta, and Monterey jack cheese, makes for great leftovers that you can eat cold. It's baked in the oven in a pie plate, eliminating the sometimes harrowing task of flipping over a hot pan to remove the frittata.

Turkey Meatloaf

Turkey Meatloaf
Sally Vargas

Ground turkey can be a little dry, but the genius trick to making sure turkey meatloaf isn't dry is to add shredded zucchini (and carrots) to add plenty of moisture. Plus, you get some added vegetables that technically, you aren't just adding to sneakily get your family to eat more veggies. You could bake this in a loaf pan, but it works really well as a free form meatloaf, too.

Creamy One-Pot Pasta With Zucchini

Bowl of Creamy One Pot Pasta with Zucchini
Simply Recipes / Alison Bickel

Here's a way of using up zucchini that you may not have thought of, and it's all done in one pot. Sauté shredded zucchini until it caramelizes and has a jammy consistency. Cook pasta and cream cheese in boiling water (yes, both at the same time). Add the jammy zucchini and lemon to the pasta and what has become a creamy sauce. Top with walnuts.

Zucchini Walnut Pancakes

Stack of pancakes with butter and maple syrup.
Simply Recipes / Shilpa Uskokovic

Zucchini bread meats pancakes in this recipe for sweet, zucchini walnut pancakes made with whole wheat flour, tangy buttermilk, cinnamon, and lemon. Real maple syrup or a drizzle of thin honey is a must.

Greek Chicken Meatballs

Greek Chicken Meatballs

We've already established that zucchini adds moisture to breads and meatloaf. It also adds moisture to meatballs. These Greek meatballs made with ground chicken might dry out without the addition of shredded zucchini, but with it, they become tender morsels that are perfect with a side of tangy yogurt sauce.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Best Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Elise Bauer

If fresh garden zucchini is piling up in your kitchen, this bread is a life saver because it uses a whole four cups of grated zucchini. The addition of natural unsweetened cocoa takes it from yum to YUM, and instant coffee and almond extract intensify its flavors.

Zucchini and Spinach Gratin

zucchini gratin in a white baking dish with a spoon
Elise Bauer

This classic French gratin is bursting with grated zucchini, spinach, and onions sautéed with bacon, parsley, and garlic, all bound together with eggs and Parmesan. It's a great side dish for baked ham.

Cheesy Zucchini Bites

Cheesy Zucchini Bites
Elise Bauer

These are kind of like tater tots, with no potatoes. Or broccoli cheddar bites, without the broccoli. Made in a mini muffin pan, these little zucchini and cheese-filled bites are perfect for breakfast, a quick snack, or a school lunch.

Zucchini Carrot Bread

Slices of Zucchini Carrot Bread on Round Wood Board Next to Small Bowl of Coconut Flakes
Simply Recipes / Lori Rice

Take regular zucchini bread up a notch with the addition of shredded carrots for sweetness, freshly grated orange zest for brightness, warm baking spices, and a powdered sugar glaze. Top it all with grated coconut.

Easy Zucchini Bread

Easy Zucchini Bread
Simply Recipes / Sally Vargas

Zucchini bread is so versatile, and this easy recipe has plenty of ideas for customizing this quick bread. Use gluten-free flour, if you want. Add nuts, or not. Add raisins, or not. Add dried cranberries, or not. You get the gist.

Spicy Turkey and Zucchini Burger

Spicy Turkey and Zucchini Burger
Elise Bauer

Turkey burgers get moist (and kinda fancy pants) with the addition of shredded zucchini plus fresh herbs and dried herbs cumin and cayenne. Serve with a side of lemony sour cream sauce.

Chocolate Cranberry Zucchini Muffins

cranberry chocolate pistachio zucchini muffins
Emma Christensen

Tart cranberries complement sweet chocolate. A sprinkling of chopped green pistachios and some almond flour bring nuttiness. Zucchini keeps it all from getting dry. This is the unexpected muffin you didn't know you needed for breakfast or a midday snack.

Black Bean Burgers With Spicy Mayonnaise

Easy Black Bean Burgers Recipe
Sally Vargas

This vegetarian alternative to the standard beef burgers of summer is full of black beans, veggies (including shredded zucchini), and breadcrumbs, bound together with an egg. They're super simple to make in the food processor and fry up quickly in a pan.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

chocolate zucchini cake with sugar glaze on a white cake pedastal
Elise Bauer

When you're asked to bring a cake to the next summer gathering, this is the one to take. Made in a Bundt pan, it's flavored with chocolate, shredded zucchini, orange peel, and pecans, then drizzled with a sweet sugar glaze.

Zucchini Bread With Pineapple

Zucchini Bread with Pineapple
Elise Bauer

The options for adding flavor to zucchini bread seem endless. In this version, crushed pineapple adds sweetness and more moistness. This recipe makes two loaves. One for eating now, and one for freezing for later.



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