15 of the Best Zucchini Recipes
15 of the best zucchini recipes on the planet all in one place! Everything from cake to soup to pasta, and they are all tried-and-true favorites!
It’s the best time of the year! That’s right, it’s zucchini season!
I really feel as though the humble zucchini doesn’t get enough positive attention. It’s one of my favorite vegetables, and even though I’m the worst backyard gardener ever, I can *usually* grow a bumper crop of zucchini (even battling squash bugs the last few years).
In honor of my children harvesting behemoth zucchini from our garden boxes nearly every day, I wanted to share 15 of my all-time favorite zucchini recipes.
Everything from brownies to soup to pasta. All of these recipes are tried-and-true favorites (but if I had to choose the two I make the most, it would definitely be the zucchini bread and chocolate zucchini cake!).
What’s your favorite recipe to make with zucchini?
45 Comments on “15 of the Best Zucchini Recipes”
You forgot to add your piled high zucchini pizza! I buy zucchini year round just so we can have that on our dinner rotation. LOVE it!
So many great recipes! But I think one more should be added to the list: your Tortellini Sausage Soup. It is one of my family’s all-time favorites and has 2 zucchini in the recipe.
Oh yes, you are right!
OH MY GOSH!!!!!! CHOCOLATE CAKE…BROWNIES. BREAD….DIDNT GET TO COOKIES YET!!!!AWESOME TO SAY THE LEAST!!!!!delious!!!!!
Hey Mel! This may be your 5 millionth comment on this topic but I was just watching Jennifer Gardner’s bagel making segment of her pretend cooking show on YouTube where she says she loves your recipe! So cool! Also I love all this zucchini stuff! Just tried the chocolate cake and it was awesome!
Thanks, Leah! Glad you love that cake! And yes, that Jennifer Garner video took me by surprise for sure – but super fun to watch and get excited about. Haha.
Thank you for these! My kids don’t like zucchini plain, so love to hide it in recipes.
I love your website and use your recipes and meal plans on a daily basis. With the craziness of online/homeschooling coming up I would love if you could share any menus of quick meals, make ahead meals, cook once/use it twice, and instapot meals.
We are doing online school with two working class agents. It’s going to be crazy!
I always thought my brownies were the best but these are the bomb and I admit better. I have a very large metal pan (17×11) so I did a recipe and a half and it was a perfect fit. Perfect thickness, moistness, chewiness on the tops, truly amazing!! Baked for full 30 minutes. I used a hodge podge of chocolate chips, some mini, some semisweet and dark, whatever I had in bags and it was great to have the variety of chips. Thanks again for awesome recipes!
I just made your Zucchini Pizza. I stayed true to your recipe and used sharp cheddar and monteray jack cheeses. Very yummy!
Yum! These are winners! Your classic zucchini bread and muffins are fabulous! And that summer garden soup is so light and delicious! I always do zucchini boats when I find enormous zucchini that have somehow gone unnoticed in the garden! Thank you for always being there to answer the question “what do I do with all of this zucchini?!”
Thank you so much, Kelsey!!
The chocolate zucchini cake with brown sugar stresuel topping is my favorite on your site. I make this recipe all the time. I often will sub the Apple sauce for the butter.
I’m glad you like that recipe, Laura! The streusel topping is SO good!
I have so many zucchini! My go to recipe of yours is https://www.melskitchencafe.com/the-ultimate-stuffed-zucchini/
We call them zucchini boats at my house! Thanks for your amazing recipes!
Oh yes, that’s an old recipe but such a keeper! Glad you love it!
Wow I cannot believe you are allowing the Marxist/communist Black lives matter on your pages.. All this rioting and social destruction–it is not a peaceful protest–look at Seattle and Portland. Absolute marxism.. I have enjoyed your recipes and commented favorably on them–but will no longer look at your blog–total ignorance–and what are you thinking adding such topics to your site!? you lost me!!
The harshness of this comment just baffles me.
Mel has responded to these type of comments numerous times saying, “While I am able to prohibit some ads, others sneak through and I have to work with my ad management company to track them down. Don’t be so quick to make judgments…”
To completely discount a blog because of something that clearly came up as an ad I just don’t understand.
Thank you for all you do Mel. I’m grateful for all the work you put in to provide us all amazing recipes.
Luckily the food tastes the same no matter what ad is displayed 😉
Thank you, Keri, for your open mindedness and kindness. We need a little bit more of that right now in the world, I think, and I appreciate it very much.
Hi Julie, I can see that you are frustrated. That’s ok! I know right now is an emotional, difficult time for all of us! I wish you the best of luck finding a food blogger who fits your ideals a bit better. I, for one, will always be a proponent of equality and kindness – every human is deserving of those basic rights.
Julie’s comment has been bothering me ever since I read it. I doubt that
Julie will see my reply but I want to make one anyway.
Mel, I’m sorry that you got this blast directed at you. It always hurts, even though one deals with it. And my more philosophical comment: Marxism and communism were intended, by their originators, to make things better for people. The problem is not in the ideals but in the implementation. Christianity has its Crusades and its Spanish Inquisition to be ashamed of. Making Marxism and communism automatically evil reveals a lack of understanding…. Many social movements attract people who enjoy the opportunity to be disruptive. I don’t know how Gandhi managed to keep his movement nonviolent. It would be nice if people who are trying to make things better didn’t feel the need to resort to violence, but I can almost understand burning a car or something, just to get somebody’s attention. I cannot understand causing harm to another person or to an animal, but I do understand that it could happen unintentionally, as things get out of hand. …. Anyway, Mel, I appreciate your calm and gentle response to this attack. It’s the second one I’ve seen, and you’ve been calm and gentle both times.
I want to add this to my previous post: It’s important to try to figure out who started it (as every parent knows).
Has anybody else tried using peeled/cooked/pureed zucchini as the basis for gravy or soup? I first saw it somewhere being used as most of the base for a chicken pie type sauce/gravy. It’s not bad. Totally dependent on being well seasoned, though.
Interesting, Anna! I haven’t tried that.
“No-Cream Creamy Basil Spinach Soup” is so delicious. We call it Incredible Hulk Soup and all 3 kids gobble it up. Deceptively simple but rich in flavor. Mmmmm. If you only try one of these zucchini recipes, make it be this one!!
I agree, Laurie, that soup is deceptively simple and deceptively yummy!
Timely post!! Can’t wait to try some of these out, Mel. Thanks!
Thanks, Erin!
These are all amazing, Mel! But I have to say you left off my favorite. Your orange zucchini bread with coconut is sooo delicious! It definitely deserves a place of honor . Thank you for all your amazing recipes!
You are right, that is a good one, Haily! I should have expanded this list to the top 20 recipes instead of just 15!
This is my absolute favorite zucchini recipe now.
I did regular diced onions instead of fried ones and half as much cheese and sundried tomatoes. I used the Costco real diced bacon pieces. I added butter, salt, pepper, garlic. https://www.yellowblissroad.com/zucchini-with-sun-dried-tomatoes-bacon-and-crispy-onions/
Oooh, thank you, Meghan. That sounds seriously amazing! Can’t wait to try it!
This is by far Best Zucchini Bread Ever and is my go-to bread every summer. I’ve made three loaves so far and will make another this afternoon. Gave my sister the recipe last week and she’s already on loaf two. This truly is the best zucchini recipe. I did drop the sugar to 1 cup and use the sour cream option. Perfection every time.
I’m so happy you love the zucchini bread recipe, Lee. Thank you!
I love zucchini too! My favorites are zucchini bread, zucchini chocolate cake, and I love adding it to our fried rice! I wish we had been able to plant some this year, but with moving and covid it was no bueno! Darn it all! Enjoy your zucchini for me!
What a great idea to add zucchini to fried rice! Maybe next year you’ll be able to get a bumper crop. 🙂
I actually was about to go make your zucchini brownies when I saw this post! Ha! That is probably my favorite homemade brownie recipe! I also really like your zucchini cheesy rice and we make skillet zucchini very often too! My favorite zucchini bread is a coconut lime version that I love so so much! My dad doesn’t love zucchini and will only eat it if it’s a small one so anytime he’s missed them in his garden and they get big he brings them to me thinking I’ll just feed them to my chickens, but I love them so many ways so the chickens only end up getting the parts of it I don’t use like the seeded middles and ends if I’m grating it for brownies or bread! Zucchini is SO yummy!
That coconut lime zucchini bread sounds AMAZING, Misty! And I’m the same way! It’s rare I throw any zucchini to the chickens (or pigs) except for the seedy innards.
THANK YOU!!!! Our friend gives us supersize zucchini every summer, and we are always looking for new yummy zucchini recipes.
Have fun working through those behemoth zucchini, Charlotte!
I have to highly recommend two of your recipes that I make all the time. Skillet Squash Medley and Zucchini Mozzarella Medley. Such a delicious side dish. I love to go to the garden and pick the squash, tomatoes and basil and immediately come in and make either of these dishes.
Those are oldies but SUCH goodies, Andrea. I should have added them to the list! The mozzarella medley is an ongoing favorite!
I have two giant zucchini sitting on my kitchen counter. I’m starting at the top of your list and going through all the baked goods!
Can’t wait to hear what you decide to make or bake, Rhonda!
Thank you for posting these, Mel? I was just wondering what to do with zucchini?
I hope this list of recipes help, Mary!