Better Late Than Never

I guess!

I had promised a couple of people  a recap of my yummy zucchini burgers the other day and have yet to get it up…so here it goes.

When I got home from the campout we were seriously low on food in the fridge but we had a few holdovers from weeks (yes, with an S) past that really really really needed to be used, red cabbage being a priority, a cauliflower also from weeks past, and the zukes next! 

Carrots were still fresh…I never get enough in my box and have to supplement for juicing with Costco huge organic bags of carrots, but sadly we were out of onions and garlic…and I had to resort to jarred.

First I dragged out my old KitchenAid monster and popped in the shredder attachment.  This sat dormant for a long time but lately has been getting a lot of use…and  today it was in for a power workout!

I had lots of shredding to do!!!

First came the zucchini since I wanted to set it aside to drain.

I shredded three zukes and placed them in a colander over a bowl.  These guys are FILLED with water and drain a lot!  I set that aside while I went to work on the cabbage.I chopped and pushed the red cabbage through the hopper.  I won’t like…this was a royal PITA!  And I got grumpy!  I also grabbed four carrots and shredded them into the mix.

I was surprised how well it stayed in the fridge.  I only had to peel off a few of the outer leaves that had turned black and yucky…the insides were brightly colored, crunchy, and still sweet!

To make the dressing, I heated some water and added some white vinegar, Sugar In The Raw,  and salt (too much salt).  A simple old recipe I had found.

Looks good?  Well it wasn’t!!!  FabHubs and the kids were able to eat it…but beyond this sample I couldn’t choke it down.  I wanted to rinse it off and start over…but FabHubs said he would eat it. 

I was really disappointed!

It was sooooo salty!  Next time I would cut waaaaayyy down on the water and salt and increase the vinegar!

After an intermediary Costco run I was able  to continue with the zucchini burgers.  I was out of Parmesan cheese and just can’t have these without it!

I  bought a giant $16 wedge and while the grater was still set up, I grated half of that into a container so we have it ready for use over the next couple of weeks.

Then I took handfuls of the zucchini out of the colander and  squeezed them as dry as I could get them, putting them into a different bowl.To the dry zucchini I added two eggs, a bunch of shredded Parmesan  cheese (maybe  a cup?), salt  and pepper, and a bunch of Panko (no measuring…I eyeballed and poured). Mixed it all up and then lit it sit a few minutes…then I formed burgers and pan fried them in a little olive oil.  They were a little too moist…I hadn’t squeezed out well enough I guess, or maybe  I should not have added the second  egg…I had a little trouble flipping them and ended up pouring a little more oil in to help it brown better (I had been stingy with the oil first go ‘round).  That seemed to do the trick. 

Finally, to round out the meal, was the cauliflower.  I chopped these up into little florets.  While I was chopping, I also heated a pan with some EVOO in it and sauteed some chopped (jarred…I prefer fresh) garlic.  I added the cauliflower to the garlic and sauteed until everything was browned.  I had some fresh parsley from the previous box as well…so  I chopped some of that and added it at the end, along with a very generous dusting of more Parmesan!    Final dinner:

Zucchini burgers on Arnold Sandwich Thins, topped with tomatoes, spinach, and fresh homemade tahini sauce (I put FabTeen to work on that one!) Alongside some browned cauliflower with parsley, cheese, and garlic…. And some too salty but looks pretty cabbage slaw!Other than the slaw this was really really good…but I have to say I was exhausted…and GRUMPY after camping, shopping, chopping, shredding, and cooking all day!