Do you like zucchini? If I were to be completely honest, I'd have to admit that I've never been a fan. Maybe it has to do with the days when we had foster kids and the boys would accidentally cook cucumbers and leave zucchini raw when they couldn't tell the difference, or from having too many of White Spot's deep fried zucchini sticks when I worked there at 19 years old. Either way, zucchini is not my favorite veggie. The thing is, this time of year it just looks so pretty-all that yellow and green in the farmer's market, and a friend of mine offered me some out of her garden, so how could I resist? Really? Maybe I could find a yummy recipe, right? Hadn't I seen something with zucchini ribbons?
The other night when Kevin had a friend over, I cleaned out the fridge and decided to try this salad that I found over on Choosy Beggars. Not only did it look pretty, the salad tasted really good too! Win, win!
Adapted from Choosy Beggars
2 green zucchini
2 yellow zucchini
3 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon
fresh basil, chopped
feta cheese
1 roma tomato, seeded and chopped, or about 3-4 cherry tomatoes, halved
salt and cracked pepper
Using a veggie peeler, peel long strips off your zucchini. It's easy really-just keep peeling until you get to the seeds. Don't throw the zucchini away when you get that far, just keep them and chop up to throw in a stir fry or something.
Toss the peeled zucchini strips and tomato together in a bowl. Set aside.
In a jam jar with a lid, measure out the lemon and oil. Put on a lid and give it a shake. Now, to be honest I found this a little too sour for my taste, so I added a little sugar. You can taste it and see what you think. I like lemon zest too, so before I juiced the lemon I zested a bunch right onto the zucchini ribbons. Yum!
Toss the dressing with the zucchini and tomatoes. Let the mixture sit on the counter for about 15 minutes to soften.
Before serving, toss in the feta and basil gently. I added lots of feta, because I love tons of cheese. Yum!
Serves 4
