Zucchini Crisp

You won't believe it's zucchini instead of apples!

Zucchini Crisp

Ingredients

6 medium zucchini, about 3 pounds, peeled,

¼ cup sugar

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 half teaspoon nutmeg,

Topping

¼ cup tightly packed brown sugar,

½ cup old-fashioned oats

¼ cup butter cold

¼ cup flour

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare an 8” x 8” baking dish with cooking spray and set aside. Trim the stem and root from the zucchini. Put them in the compost pile. Cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and use the tip of a serving spoon to scrape out the seeds. Discard but do not put the seeds in the compost pile or you'll have zooks taking over your entire garden! Chop the zucchini into 3 quarter inch pieces. Place the zucchini pieces in a large bowl and add the sugar, vinegars, lemon juice, cinnamon, vanilla extract and nutmeg. Stir until the zucchini is evenly coated with the mixture. and pour into the baking dish.

For the topping, combine the brown sugar, oats, flour, and cinnamon. You can use the same bowl. Use a pastry cutter or two knives to cut the ¼ cup of butter into the mixture until you get pea-sized lumps. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the zucchini mixture. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the zucchini is soft. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Notes

--All zucchini growers ( and their neighbors!) know, it can be a challenge to find ways to use this over-abundant squash. I recommend Zucchini Crisp---like apple crisp, only using cubed zucchini. There are several recipes out there, and most of them wisely instruct you to remove the seeds of the zucchini before cubing it, which helps disguise the fact that you are eating vegetables instead of fruit. You need lemon juice to counteract the blandness of the squash, and I add apple cider vinegar as well as splash of balsamic vinegar. Without these last two acetic elements, the dessert is has little "tart apple" flavor to it.

--Every time I have serve this, I have never said a word about zucchini, and everyone praised the flavor of my "apple crisp"!