Zucchini flowers are not available at our local Farmer’s Markets as they are all over Europe…
…so I decided to grow my own this year. I planted little nests of them everywhere. I tucked them under bushes, and trees, and flowers and in corners all over my garden in clusters of 3’s and 5’s. Before we left for our holidays, happy little zucchini leaves had reared their heads and were bobbing non-stop in the garden. I was pumped!
Aren’t they gorgeous? We returned to a forest of leaves. Huge, massive zucchini plants invading the other civilized vegetables growing at a reasonable rate. These had grown faster than Jack’s beanstalk and possessed leaves larger than most umbrellas! (I may be exaggerating a bit, here.) There was not a proliferation of flowers, but there were enough to find me tenderly stroking them and welcoming them into our garden! Then we hacked away the giant stalks and left the lower ones to feed the flowers. But, I could not contain myself. I harvested almost all that were ready that same day.
What to do with them? I have seen so many shows were they are stuffed with a ricotta concoction of some sort, so that is what I decided to do. I did google recipes, but all I found seemed to be similar: ricotta and eggs. So, I mixed up a mixture of ricotta with eggs, minced onion, and salt and pepper (above, right).
I had a couple of different kinds of flowers. The ones I liked best were shaped like a bubble and closed at the top (above). The others were wide open and stretched out to the sunshine (below, left). Both worked well. The ones that were closed on the top just needed a little gentle coaxing to open a little. I spooned the filling into all of the flowers and twisted the ends over the filling to hold it in. The above flower is already filled, and below, right has been dipped into a light batter before frying. I wanted you to see how runny it was.
These are my harvested flowers before filling. You can see the different kinds.
Above, all of the flowers are filled. I then dipped each in batter just before frying.
A few at a time is always best. I kept the heat at medium, and turned each to brown evenly. Each was fried two to three minutes, depending upon its size.
Can you hear me breaking into a rendition of “Hallelujah”? Oh, my gosh! They were so pretty.
And how did they taste? The flower was crispy and perfectly cooked and delicately flavoured. It is more about the texture with these flowers. Delicious. The stuffing? Not so much. It was too spongy. I added too many eggs. I need to work at the development of a great stuffing for these. I will add, the ones that close at the top are often just fried and then seasoned. They are incredible this way, and I have done them like that once before a few years ago when I got some as a gift. But, I want to serve a substantial and flavourful bite… so the recipe that I haven’t given you needs work. The idea doesn’t. I still enjoyed them, and would love suggestions for really great stuffing recipes!
And will I grow them again? I am not sure. I planted so many and the space they take for the small harvest is not justifiable in my small garden. I really would love to, though!
Beavie? Beavie isn’t allowed to eat deep fried food. It isn’t good for him.
They are totally pretty, but I’m totally kind of intimidated to use them! They’ve always looked kind of alien to me, heh heh. My backyard garden has turned into a squash jungle and I have tons of zucchini flowers I could use…maybe I’ll have to be courageous and follow your example!
Oh my goodness! I have NEVER eaten with zucchini flowers – it is a dream!!!!
Yours look oh so wondnerful Val and I am happy to have you back 🙂
Ciao, Devaki @ weavethousandflavors
Great job on the zucchini blossoms. They are not available here in Swift Current either. I used to be able to get them in Calgary. Perhaps I’ll plant a few next year.
Hey Valerie!
Those are beautiful indeed! I’ve never had a zuchinni blossom before. The first time I’ve ever seen them eaten was on the food network. I think it was on Curtis Stone’s Take Home Chef show. I remember thinking, “omg zuchinnis have flowers? And you can eat them?!” lol. Yours looks delicious! Great choice to deep fry them. Everything tastes better deep fried (in my books at least), teehee. Ok so when you said you were looking for more recipes on what to do with these, the first foodie who popped in my mind was Chef Dennis from More Than a Mount Full. He has a zuchinni blossom obsession. Teehee. And those are his words, not mine. I’d never say anything about anyone like that. Check out his blog, I’m sure you’ll find many different recipes for this.
http://morethanamountfull.blogspot.com/2010/08/squash-blossom-muffins-and-my-riviera.html
Let me know if the link doesn’t work. Happy reading! Have a great day, dear!
Wow, those are so pretty. Stuffed zucchini flowers are one of my all time favorite things. The problem is I have a fear of deep frying after I started a bad fire once! I’ve never tried it since. Maybe u can make these for me daaahling.
*kisses* HH
What seed varieties did you plant? They look scrumptious!
I’ve never seen those before! They are very pretty, and you can eat them? COOL! Thanks for sharing!
I have made them a couple of times already this summer and love them; they are so versatile and the second time I simply stuffed them with a slice of cheddar cheese and some mustard and basil, no-brainer. Melted and oozed and it was just as good.
yammy!
If you don’t grow them next year, sounds like Mel and I could be your suppliers.
COOL, Kevin!
I have to get over to your site again. Have you posted something about these? I cannot wait to take a peek! And, I do want a supplier! I want to try Joumana’s simple suggestion: cheddar with basil. Any others?
🙂
Valerie
MEL!!!
I would love more flowers to experiment with! Are you willing to spare any? Though I am growing a jungle of them, I just don’t have that many flowers… mostly zucchini by now – as I was away. If you have extra… I would love some! And you MUST experiment with them. You simply MUST!
XO
🙂
Valerite
Oh Valerie… you are always one step ahead of me! I moved into a new home on August 1 and the garden is a jungle of squash flowers — not zucchini, but acorn squash… they flowers look the same and I’ve been wanting to go out and harvest them all, yet each day passes and I’m just too busy to get around to it. (Really, it’s an untended jungle of Jurassic proportions!) What do you think — are the Acorn squash flowers as edible as the summer squash ones? (I can’t see why not, but you are obviously more of an expert and maybe you know. The photos are GORGEOUS by the way and I say “Hallelujah” too!
Helene!
I was just catching up on your site… when I came over here to check something. I am sure all squash flowers are as good! I had yellow and green zucchini. They are different at different phases of development – but, I used whatever looked usable… and everything was. I just need a better recipe. See Joumana’s suggestion in comments.
🙂
Valerie
xo
Valerie, you are amazing! These ricotta-stuffed blossoms look mouthwatering.
Valerie, my squash jungle is still going strong, so I could probably hook you up with some more blossoms, I’ve also got a few other varieties – butternut, pumpkin, and a whitish-green squash I forgot the name of right now, heh heh. I guess all squash blossoms are probably edible? Or is it only summer varieties?
Hi, Mel!
How big is your garden and what do you do with all of that squash. I am so curious! But, yes… all of the flowers must be edible.
🙂
Valerie
@ Mel, blossoms last a few days if you put them in a glass of water. Out of direct sunlight, of course.
My garden is quite huge, taking up three-quarters of my backyard. However I’m a little disheartened because even though my squash are out of control, not many of the fruits have matured this year 🙁 Plus I’m moving in a week (!) to our new house so I’m going to have to rip out most of the garden! If you do want blossoms, I’ll pick some for you and we can meet up somewhere. I don’t suppose you know how long the blossoms last once picked? Probably not too long…
Hey Valerie, this is so nice! And it looks like you flash fried your flowers perfectly. I want one-so hungry!
You know, I’m about to have to pull all of our cucumber, zuchini, and yellow squash plants out of the garden. I’ve noticed a lot of flowers though. Maybe I should pick them and try to make something before I compost all of the plants down!?
Wow! These zucchini flowers are just gorgeous!
Kudos on the success with your planting. The zucchini flowers recipe looks fabulous.
A friend gave me a few zucchini flowers last week so I was finally able to replicate the dish Aglaia made for me 4 years ago in Greece. Plenty of tavernas offered them on their menu but everywhere they were sold out!She simply stuffs the flowers with a piece of feta cheese and a mint leaf…a piece of heaven!!!
Thank you for a wonderful stuffing idea, Valli!
🙂
Val, these look great — I never attempted making squash flowers, think they’d go with bacon :)?
How I sympathize with your zucchini gardening escapade! Even one of these monster plants can take over a small vegetable garden, while several might turn into a Godzilla-like affair. I’m still waiting for Burpee to hybridize this plant so that it stays small and puts all its efforts into flowers!
I think your recipe looks just sensational. But if you’re hunting for a different stuffing idea check out Guinataang Bulaklak ng Kalabasa, which is squash blossoms stuffed with chicken and/or shrimp in a spicy coconut milk sauce. It’s a Filipino dish and is absolutely heavenly! Hugs.
Barbara!
What a special surprise to see such a wonderful idea for stuffing my blossoms. I could not find such a recipe anywhere! 🙁 !Here is a vegetarian link.
🙂
Valerie
These squash flowers certainly look good. Too bad the stuff wasn’t up to snuff. It’s true squash plants take up a lot of room. If you do decide to grow them again, perhaps trellising will help, and they can grow upwards.
Christine…. what a brilliant idea – thank you!
XO Valerie
wow the color is simply amazing…I need to follow your lead and plant these babies next year, love the recipe…yum
sweetlife
Welcome home. I love zucchini blossoms and am seriously eyeballing a patch at my kids school with the gorgeous yellow ones. Tomorrow I’ll speak to the gardener! I guess they are like mint….the plants, taking up every inch of soil in sight.
I suck at growing things…..I tried growing lettuce once, because it’s supposed to be easy, but they only grew to about the size of a tennis ball before they died =[ But your zuchini flowers look so pretty!! I’ve never had fried zuchini flowers before, but they sound and look delicious! I first saw them on a TV show and there were bugs in them….it sorta creeped me out….haha =D I love the photos- the zuchini flowers look so bright and pretty!
Having just got back from San Francisco Val, I have to say, these little gems were at every farmers market down there..and they were also something I was looking forward too. Nice work!
These look wonderful, and so great that you can grow them 🙂
those look tasty!
Oooh I love this idea! Makes me wish I had a garden…I need to work on bribing someone to grow these for me. Just flipped through my Joy of Cooking book and it has a filling recipe that sounds good; it’s ricotta, egg, parmesan, garlic, and some fresh herbs; if you have the book look up “squash blossoms”.
Hi Valerie,
In Rome these are typically stuffed with a small cube of mozzarella and half a fileted Anchovy. then you close it up like you did and dip and fry until golden.
you can also cook them in the oven, this way one can eat these more often, and stuff them with a ricotta (that you’ve drained of extra water) mixed with parmigiano and either parsley, basil, garlic etc. then lay in a tray and cook in hot oven for a few minutes until the flower is cooked through. you can drizzle a little olive oil on top before if you’d like.
BTW your flowers look absolutely crunch-Y!!! yum!
Maribel!
Am I ever lucky I met you! I cannot wait to try them your way. I apologize for the lateness of my Italy posts. I am getting there, and your pasta making class was life altering for me. Cannot wait to write about it!
XO
V