Kohlrabi and Zucchini Fritters with Wasabi Mayo

I didn’t even know kohlrabi existed until a few months ago. It was my brother’s birthday, and someone decided to give him seeds to plant in the garden. I looked at the package, frowning at the foreign name, and that was my first encounter with kohlrabi. Fast forward to the present, and the seeds have transformed into lovely green bulbs with leaves on top. These fritters are the first time I used the vegetable, so I was quite surprised by how hard of an effort it took to cut into it! I also recognized a smell but couldn’t put my finger on what it was. Of course, my mind needed to know, so one online search later and I came up with Martha Stewart’s definition of kohlrabi: it’s like a cross between a radish, jicama, broccoli, and collard greens. And that was it! My nose had detected the radish smell. But when the kohlrabi’s cooked, it doesn’t really taste like radish but more of a mixture between broccoli, zucchini and potato. Strange, huh?

These fritters are a wondrous combination of the strange veggie named kohlrabi, zucchini, egg, breadcrumbs and spices. It’s crunchy and soft (oxymoron point in English class!) plus the fritters smell so good when they’re cooking in the pan. It’s excellent with the wasabi mayo, which gives it an extra pop that I love.

Crispy Baked Zucchini Fries

Healthy fries just got real. Sure, they don’t actually taste like salty potato fries, but don’t compare them to that unhealthy junk. Think of it as soft baked zucchini coated with a crispy layer of cheesy goodness and breadcrumbs.

I think summer flew by way too fast. I did summer school for a month, went camping one time and now it’s already school again. I don’t know if I should be sad or happy. On one end, I know I’ll have lots of homework and projects and classwork and tests, but on the other hand, I am excited to see my friends again and see if there are any new kids coming (our school is small so a new kid is a big deal)!

I will now veer away from the topic of school since that’s making me anxious. 🙂

Zucchini Chocolate Muffins

A friend came back from a trip in France recently and they came over to our house, bringing lots of dreamy chocolates for us to taste. They were melt-in-your-mouth type of delicious. Anyways, that day, I had made muffins using the zucchini from our garden because we always have way too much, and my friend tasted one and said it was pretty good. I was happy, but then he paid me the utmost compliment any baker can get (or at least, in my rankings of compliments). He asked for another one! And then cheerfully gobbled it up.

Whenever someone asks for a second serving, I know they truly like it and that can brighten up my day no matter what kind of day it is. Even if it’s pouring rain and I have soccer practice. Outside. And my friend didn’t even flinch when I said it had zucchini in it :). A true eater.

These moist muffins are loaded with zucchini and chocolate, and there is no oil! Also, they are sweetened with maple syrup and cane sugar, which is a healthier alternative to your regular white granulated sugar. An all around A+ in my books.

• Servings: 12
• Time: 30 mins (Prep 10 mins)
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

Sneaking in that zucchini without compromising chocolate’s delicious taste. These muffins are even healthier with applesauce instead of oil or butter.

Ingredients:
1 cup white flour
1/4  cup cocoa powder
1  1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup Greek yogurt (try it homemade)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup cane sugar
1/3 cup applesauce, no sugar added
1 cup grated zucchini, lightly pressed to remove large amounts of water
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 175 °C (350 °F). Grease 12 muffin tins with butter or coconut oil.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda.
3. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, Greek yogurt, maple syrup, cane sugar and applesauce. Once thoroughly mixed, fold in the grated zucchini.
4. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and lastly fold in the chocolate chips. The mixture shouldn’t be too liquid (if it is, add a 1/4 cup more flour). Divide the batter into the prepared muffin pan.
5. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, until the top of the muffins have risen and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
6. Let the muffins cool down in the muffin tins for 5 minutes before removing and placing on a metal rack. Eat warm or store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Gooey Chocolate Zucchini Brownies

I recently started using Pinterest, mainly because every time I see something interesting on the website this annoying pop up appears and I can’t see what caught my eye. So I made an account. I didn’t understand why people would take hours just pinning stuff, but now it all makes sense. I love putting everything in boards. It feels like I’m organizing my life. And it’s so easy. That’s also where I found the inspiration for these healthy delicious brownies.

Nowadays, you can hide veggies in anything and it will still taste good. Like these chocolate zucchini brownies. I am insanely in love with this. The chocolate just oozes in my mouth and afterwards my hands are covered with sticky chocolate, but it’s worth it! (Although having chocolaty fingers in Spanish class is not ideal when we have to write stuff down.)

Blueberry Lemon Zucchini Bread

I love this recipe. It was so easy to make, and the results were delicious. The bread is moist, and the addition of lemon and blueberries with the zucchini really made a difference in taste. It is definitely not one of those weird tasting zucchini creations. This is really really really good.

Baked Zucchini Fritters

Zucchini, zucchini and zucchini! We still have a lot from our garden, so I’m trying to use them up before they get rotten. One of the most delicious ways of using zucchini is fritters!

Although the normal ones are fried in a pan, I baked them in the oven to make it healthier. These zucchini fritters are very easy to make, with only 7 ingredients. The only thing you really have to do is squeeze as much water as you can from the grated zucchini to make sure they hold together when baked.

Spicy Stuffed Zucchini

Coming back from a beautiful holiday in Europe, I was a bit excited to see if anything had changed at our house. We always leave during the start of summer and the garden is, as always, left untended.

So when the taxi dropped us off, the first thing I did was go the the garden. It was pretty amazing. There were overgrown green leaves everywhere, the strawberries were a bright shade of red, and most of all, the zucchini (10 of them!) had grown to an incredible size.

Since no one wants food going to waste, I scrambled up ideas in my head to use the zucchini.