Zucchini salad - general cooking principles
What salads don't do! Almost all known food ingredients and their bold combinations in the hands of a loving hostess turn into a culinary masterpiece. So the squash, it would seem, completely "not salad" vegetable adapted. Many eaters prefer to use zucchini fried in flour or batter, however, believe me, salads from these valuable vegetables, if cooked correctly and seasoned with a suitable sauce, turn out to be no less tasty and mouth-watering.
Zucchini is not only tasty, but also very useful, and most importantly a satisfying food product. When zucchini is consumed, a feeling of satiety very quickly sets in, and in terms of calorie content, they break all records - only 20 kcal per 100 grams. But, despite this, zucchini concentrated a large amount of fiber, minerals and vitamins. This valuable quality rightfully allows you to put the vegetable in the top ten ideal dietary products.
It turns out that zucchini in salads is combined with so many components. Use it in raw, and fried, and grated, and baked form. Great for salads are also pre-marinated zucchini, which are ideally combined with other vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, chicken and meat products. Salted zucchini salads are seasoned, usually with mayonnaise, vegetable oils mixed with vinegar and spices, or home-made sauce (by the way, we will share a couple of recipes below). Sweet foods are usually seasoned with sour cream or yogurt. Although in such a crucial matter, everyone focuses on their taste and color.
Zucchini Salad - Product Preparation
For salads, it is better to use young zucchini - not too thick and not too long. In size, they should be slightly larger than the cucumber. These vegetables taste very delicate, the peel is thin and soft, and the seeds are very small, so it’s enough to rinse young zucchini with a brush under running water and use it raw. Cutting the peel or not is up to you.
Large zucchini have a coarser tissue structure, thick skin and large seeds, which must be disposed of before cooking. "Old" zucchini can also be used as the main ingredient in the salad, but preferably in grated, fried, boiled or canned form.
Zucchini salad - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Korean Zucchini Salad
The courgettes included in the salad will give it a piquantly sweet taste. We will fill the dish with a specially prepared sauce consisting of vegetable oil, vinegar (lemon juice), soy sauce. It is necessary to prepare the salad several hours before consumption so that each piece of it is thoroughly soaked and marinated.
Ingredients:
- 2-3 medium squash or pieces 5 young
- white cabbage 200 gr.
- one onion
- one sweet pepper
- apple cider vinegar 1 tablespoon
- soy sauce 1 tablespoon
- salt
Cooking method:
We shred the cabbage with small straws and knead thoroughly with our hands. Zucchini peeled and peeled, if they are not young, and cut into strips. Mix them with cabbage. Grate carrots on a special "Korean" grater to grind it into thin slices. Cut the peeled onion in half rings and add to the vegetables. Remove the peduncle and seeds from the pepper, cut the flesh into thin slices.
Preparing the sauce: mix the butter, soy sauce and apples. vinegar, beat the mixture until smooth and season the salad. Then we remove it in the refrigerator or other cool place for 4-15 hours for impregnation.
Recipe 2: Fruit Zucchini Salad
Hearty, very light, colorful and healthy salad. Everyone will certainly enjoy it, and especially those who adhere to a healthy or dietary diet. A true friend of the perfect figure!
Ingredients:
- zucchini young 400 gr.
- pear 300 gr.
- apple 300 gr.
- 50 gr. raisins
- yogurt 150 gr.
- sugar (optional)
- juice of one lemon
Cooking method:
Peel apples and pears from peel and seeds, cut into small cubes. In zucchini, remove the peel (required), also cut into cubes. All ingredients should be cut into approximately equal pieces. Mix everything, put the raisins soaked earlier and season the salad with lemon juice, put in the refrigerator for 1-3 hours. Before serving, dress the salad with yogurt. If desired, you can add a little sugar.
Recipe 3: Zucchini Salad with Mushrooms
This salad is perfect for any table. A mix of zucchini, chicken, mushrooms and vegetables is a very difficult combination, but despite this, the output dish turns out to be very tasty and unusual. Give it a try!
Ingredients:
- three medium squash
- half a glass of boiled or canned mushrooms
- one pickled cucumber
- chicken fillet 150 gr.
- 1 medium tomato
- the oil grows.
- mayonnaise 4 tbsp. l
- premium flour 3 tbsp. spoons
- salt
- any greens (you can dill)
- pepper
Cooking method:
We clean the zucchini, eliminate the seeds, cut into small slices, roll them in flour and fry in a strong flame until crusted. Cut the chicken into small pieces, cut the mushrooms into plates (if they are large). Dice the tomato, and three on a grater. We mix all the ingredients, sprinkle with herbs and season the salad with pepper, salt and mayonnaise. The dish is ready!
Recipe 4: Smoked Chicken Zucchini Salad
Smoked chicken is a favorite dish, which hardly anyone will refuse. In salads, it is a versatile product that blends perfectly with many ingredients. Combining zucchini and smoked chicken in one dish is a very unusual but successful move. However, try to cook yourself.
Ingredients:
- 350 gr. young zucchini
- 2 onions
- half sweet pepper (red)
- half green pepper
- half yellow pepper
- clove of garlic
- 5-7 table. tablespoons of olive oil
- salt
- pepper
- 250 gr. eggplant
- 250 gr. peeled tomato
- 350-400 gr. smoked chicken fillet
Cooking method:
1. Diced zucchini peeled into cubes, onion into thin rings, pepper pods into cubes. Grind the garlic with a garlic squeezer and mix with three tables. tablespoons of olive oil.
2. Mix vegetables, season with oil and garlic sauce.
3. We clean the eggplants, cut them into cubes and fry in oil over high heat, stirring constantly. Cut tomatoes and add to the eggplant. Salt, pepper and simmer for about 3 minutes.
4. Next, put pepper and onions in the pan, turn off the stove and let the vegetables fry a little. Then cool and mix with coarsely smoked chicken. Add vegetable oil if necessary.
Zucchini Salad - Useful Tips
Sauces are an essential supplement to almost any salad. They complement the dish, make it more nutritious, tastier, more attractive and more aromatic. In addition, they have a unique ability to stimulate appetite, which is very important in the digestion process. Hand-made sauces are a great opportunity to diversify a dish that contains the same ingredients. So, instead of the usual mayonnaise we bought, why not make it at home? Below we, as promised, will share recipes for original sauces that are perfect for any salty zucchini salad.
Homemade mayonnaise
To prepare it, we will need the following ingredients: half a glass of refined vegetable oil, one egg yolk, 1 tablespoon of vinegar, a little sugar, ¼ tablespoon of mustard, salt to taste.
Cooking method:
In a porcelain cup, mix the yolk and ¼ teaspoon of mustard. Do not forget to salt a little. After we thoroughly mixed the whisk with the yolk with mustard, slowly pour the vegetable oil into the mixture, constantly whipping. When the sauce thickens, pour in the vinegar and mix. If the mayonnaise is too thick, add it with a spoon of warm water.
Yogurt Diet Sauce
To prepare it, get: 500 ml of yogurt without additives, salt, juice of one lemon, garlic 4-5 cloves, any greens (bunch).
Cooking method:
We press the garlic through the garlic squeezer, chop the greens very finely. You can skip it through a meat grinder. Beat the yogurt a little and mix with all the ingredients and salt. Let our sauce brew in a cool place for an hour and season the salad. Enjoy your meal!
