Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Sauteed Zucchini and Summer Squash


I love this simple, colorful, and flavorful side dish of zucchini and summer(crookneck) squash.

Zucchini season would not be complete without having this side dish along with a burger off the grill or a piece of marinaded grilled chicken. And the best part but rather unhealthy side of this dish is that it tastes soooo much better cooked in bacon grease(I keep a jar of grease in my fridge during the summer months just for using in cooking!).

My mom steps it up a notch in color and adds shredded or julienned carrots to the dish.

The directions for this dish are easy...
  1. Cut up into quarters some zucchini and summer squash. You want chunks over slices because the squash will cook down.
  2. Cut up some onion. The amount of onion that you use is based on the amount of squash you cut up. If you only cut up one summer squash and 1 zucchini, only do 1/4 of an onion. OR if you are like me and don't have fresh onion on hand, use 2 TSBP. of dried minced onions for the 2 squash. If you use dried minced onion, put it in a cup or bowl and hydrate it first with a 1-2 TBSP water....now you have "fresh onion" to put in your squash.
  3. Melt 1 TBSP bacon grease or use 1 TBSP butter or olive oil in a skillet.
  4. Put squash & onions in the skillet once the grease or butter/olive oil is melted.
  5. Cook/fry/sauteed the squash and onions until tender. The picture above shows the squash about 1/2 way done. I like to cook it until it has some browning on the squash.
This dish is best served hot.

The last time I made this, I ended up with leftovers and decided to heat them up in the microwave the next day for lunch. Yuck! It does NOT make a very tasty leftover if heated back up in the microwave. Next time I have leftovers, I am going to take my mom's suggestion and heat them back up in the skillet where the squash might get a bit more browning.

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4 comments:

Unknown said...

I make zucchini and squash almost like this, but I fry bacon first, then add the rest of the ingredients. I noticed that you use bacon grease. This is a GREAT!!! way to use zucchini from the garden. THANKS!!! Geri

Jerralea said...

I ♥ bacon, so I would like this! Looks pretty and colorful, too. Thanks for sharing.

Lisa@BlessedwithGrace said...

Great summer recipe. Thanks for linking to TMTT.

SnoWhite said...

yummy :)

we add bacon bits and cheddar cheese to our zucchini saute -- melted over the top -- it's delicious.