Get Baked: Easiest Zucchini Ever

It’s summer, which means a few things:

1. There are lots of delicious vegetables around, and
2. Cooking for long periods of time (or really, at all) in a non-air-conditioned apartment is mild torture.

This zucchini recipe takes advantage of these facts by consisting mostly of delicious vegetables and by requiring that you have the stove burner on for under three minutes. It’s also the easiest thing you will ever make that still looks fancy.

Easiest Sautéed Zucchini Ever

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup thinly sliced almonds
4 small zucchini, cut into tiny matchsticks
Sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Prepare all your ingredients before turning anything on or adding anything to a pan over high heat. This part is really important and takes the longest, so even though it’s sort of under “ingredients,” I’m saying it again.

2. Heat the olive oil on high heat in a large frying pan. Right before it starts smoking, add the almonds. Stir continuously while they cook to a light golden-brown, which will take about a minute (if you’re not sure, “less golden” is better than “charred” by a long shot).

3. Add the zucchini to the pan, stirring so it mixes with the almonds and oil. Cook for one to two minutes, but no more — think “warming” instead of “stir-frying.”

4. Season and serve immediately. Serves 1-4 people, depending on how hungry everyone is and whether you’re using it as a side or as your main meal.

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

Ryan Yates

Ryan Yates was the NSFW Editor (2013–2018) and Literary Editor for Autostraddle.com, with bylines in Nylon, Refinery29, The Toast, Bitch, The Daily Beast, Jezebel, and elsewhere. They live in Los Angeles and also on twitter and instagram.

Ryan has written 1142 articles for us.

30 Comments

  1. I love zucchini! I don’t really know anyone else who does, it seems to be a vegetable without much love, but I love it sooo.

    Its so delicious in my belly, its also very good as just zucchini and tofu for a meal.

  2. I can’t wait to make this. I eat zucchini at least 3 nights a week. My personal favorite is zucchini and carmelized onions with lots of garlic.

  3. I am not a zucchini person or a vegetable person.
    But, it has almonds on it, so i can try at home one day.

  4. Tip: Don’t heat the olive oil on high (it has a low smoke point). I recommend medium, medium-high at the hottest, but all stoves are different. Extra virgin olive oil has a lower smoke point than plain old olive oil.

  5. No offense, but isn’t the point of a recipe is that it’s something that you couldn’t just sort of figure out and do on your own? I feel like this recipe could be summed up as “sautee julienned zucchini with almonds in olive oil.” Like that’s fine, but how about something for the intermediate cooks too? I don’t even like zucchini that much, so I guess I should just STFU!

    • @magiclovemuffin, lots and lots of people have no experience with making food at all, so they might not even think up putting almonds with zucchini or know how to sautee it. i went to school with a kid who had to be taught how to boil pasta. he didn’t even know what it meant to boil water. so this kind of stuff is great and important! besides, lots of the get baked articles have included much more complicated things.

  6. I appreciate this article. especially the idea of pairing the zucchini with almonds. thanks!

  7. NO IT’S NOT SUMMER. IT IS COLD AND MISERABLE AND I CAN’T GET WARM NO MATTER WHAT I DO. AHHHHHHH

    Okay, I’ve just decided we’re going to have ANTIPODES SEASONALLY APPROPRIATE GET BAKED right here in the comments! Because that’s just how I roll, kids!

    In honor of the fact that pumpkin is currently $.59 a kilo at my greengrocer’s but the other half won’t let me buy any more, I give you: TOMATO-PUMPKIN PASTA (note: Australian terminology first, American terminology second)

    Ingredients:
    your favorite pasta noodles (I use the twirly Soyaroni, but I won’t judge)
    1 onion or 2 eschalots/shallots, diced
    1-2 cloves of garlic (depending on taste), crushed and diced
    ~250g pumpkin (don’t care what kind, just use your favorite/whatever’s cheap), cut into bite-sized bits
    1 can of crushed tomatoes (you could use fresh, but what do you think I am, some kind of wizard?)
    2-3 flat/portabello mushrooms, diced
    1 can chickpeas/garbanzo beans (or equivalent cooked from dry)
    rosemary & oregano to taste (or other herbs/spices if you’re daring – MIX IT UP)
    olive oil
    goat cheese to taste

    Steps:
    1. Cook your pasta according to the packet instructions. Usually this involves boiling some water of some kind.
    2. Sautee your garlic and onion or eschalots/shallots over medium heat in olive oil in a large pan.
    3. Add the pumpkin and mushroom and stir them around until they’re covered with the delicious garlicky oil.
    4. Add the diced tomatoes and cover. Simmer until the pumpkin is soft (I never time these things – it’ll probably be like 10 minutes or something? idk).
    5. Add the chickpeas and stir through until they’re warmed up.
    6. Turn off the heat and add the pasta, stirring until the noodles are covered in deliciousness.
    7. Add crumbled goat cheese to taste.
    8. Eat. With your face.

    Variations: You can cook lots of veggies this way. Some I like: zucchini (HEY TOPICAL), cauliflower, spinach (cut into ribbons and add a few minutes before the pumpkin is soft), green beans, pattypan/summer squash… the possibilities are endless. (Well, probably not potato. But you know.)

    • Oh shit I forgot the herbs/spices. Add those with the garlic (or, if you forget, with the tomatoes. Again, I won’t judge.)

    • Hold up… all this time ‘garbanzo beans’ are just chickpeas? Ohh… I’m having “what do you mean cilantro is coriander” flashbacks…

      • Yep! (And the cilantro/coriander thing gets me EVERY TIME, except I suspect in the other direction.)

        • wait wait wait…….

          i knew the garbanzo beans are chickpeas thing….

          but cilantro is coriander? your making that up.

          *googles this*

          i love this site so much. even in the cooking section you manage to blow my mind.

          • I was told that the word “coriander” is used for coriander seeds, and cilantro is, well, cilantro. In French, it’s just “coriandre” all around.

    • IT IS ALSO COLD AND FUCKING UNBEARABLE IN NEW ZEALAND I FEEL YOUR PAIN.
      I am going to try your recipe. And then put almonds in my grilled zucchini because I haven’t tried that yet.

      Those Americans, with their nice summer weather and sandals and sundresses…. Psssht.

      • We’ll have the last laugh come December. (Or, well, I’ll be going OH MY GOD WHY IS IT SO HOT because I live in Sydney, but YOU KNOW)

  8. hey, i like cooking and this doesn’t even look like it would cost that much so i think i am eating it for dinner this week.

  9. i only ever eat zucchini fried. so i should probably try this.

    but i really love vegetables fried. i think it is my southerness.

  10. You guys, I actually MADE this. Sautéed some garlic and onions first, then added the zucchini (green and yellow for pretty factor) and a squeeze of lemon juice at the end before adding the almonds.

    Ate it with “egg curry” (scrambled eggs with tomato, zucchini, chili powder and chili powder)

    Superbe.

  11. You’ll have to have me as a follower since the information you offer is really true, accurately portraying the situation in an objective manner, and it’s highly helpful for the development of society as a whole.

Comments are closed.