There is a joke that floats around in the summertime in Maine: When zucchini season hits, lock your car doors because someone will probably drop some off in your seat if you are not careful.
The joke originates from the fact that even one zucchini plant will not only grow an inordinate number of zucchinis, if left on the vine, those zucchinis become MASSIVE. Here are a few of mine that I left one extra day by accident:

This year I have tried to become as creative as possible in cooking with zucchini. I found this FABULOUS chocolate zucchini cake recipe that I have definitely added to my repertoire. I traded out the walnuts and added chocolate chips, swapped 3/4 C applesauce for 3/4 C of the oil (leaving the other 3/4 C as is), put it in a bundt pan, added a bit of cooking time, topped with a delicious chocolate glaze and VOILA, one zucchini down.
I have also added shredded zucchini to my morning scrambled eggs. I have added it diced to chili. I have thrown slices on the grill. Anything that I could think of to use up this delicious but prolific veggie.
My favorite recipe BY FAR, however, would have to be this Stuffed Zucchini Egg Roll recipe that I threw together in a desperate “What the hell am I going to do with all of this???” moment. While the typical Italian type stuffed zucchini is good, I wanted to use more of the ingredients that I had lying around: freshly harvested garlic, carrots, cabbage, and green onions; frozen ground pork from last year’s pig; fresh ginger left from some Indian dishes that I have been experimenting with. Those ingredients screamed EGG ROLL to me — and why not stuff the filling in zucchini for a healthier treat? Why not, indeed.
The resulting recipe was not only unbelievably delicious, it was also incredibly healthy as our pork tends to be quite lean.





STUFFED ZUCCHINI EGG ROLLS
2 – 3 medium (massive type may not fit in your dish) zucchini with seeds scooped out
1 lb ground pork
1/2 head medium cabbage
2 carrots, shredded
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1″ fresh ginger, minced
2 scallions (mine had started to become onions, so I used the whites, too)
1 Tablespoon oyster sauce
2 1/2 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce
1 teaspoon (or so depending on your spice tolerance — I am an “or so” kind of person) Sriracha
Preheat oven to 350º
Cut zucchinis in half and scoop out seeds. Measure out and cut evenly to fit in a 9 x 13″ glass baking dish.
Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a large bowl. (I used a potato masher) Then fill the zucchini with a heaping amount of the mixture rounding the tops slightly over. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45 minutes. Make sure that the pork is cooked through before eating.
That’s it. Easy. Delicious. And a nice way to use some of that zucchini up.
I see that our gazillion tomato plants are starting to ripen…hmmm, I wonder what I will do next…
1 reply on “Lock Your Doors”
have learnt a new thing today…a thing I’ll try after work may be. that iis making STUFFED ZUCCHINI EGG ROLLS.