Some of you might remember that back in August, I dehydrated a big batch of zucchini from my friend’s garden. I had hoped that I’d be able to chop the dried zucchini chips in my food chopper and then use them in applications that called for shredded zucchini.
Well, the results are in, and I have to say that I’m disappointed to say the least.
On Tuesday when I baked Fred & Sarah’s Deluxe Low-Carb “Pizza” with a Zucchini-Cheese Crust, I started the process by grabbing the zucchini that I’d dehydrated. It still tasted great, although it was a little more brown than I remember. I put it in my food chopper, started to process, and much to my disappointment, it wouldn’t really chop into anything that resembled consistent pieces. Some of it processed into dust and some of it was still in large pieces that got caught in the blade. I made several attempts at chopping it. None of them worked.
Thank goodness my friend brought some more fresh zucchini from her garden. I was able to shred enough to make the pizza crust, and dinner went on smoothly.
When I get ambitious, I think I’ll shred more zucchini and try and dry it that way. Because it’s so wet though, I’m afraid that it’ll all stick together like zucchini leather, and that won’t accomplish what I’m shooting for either.
I would likely use shredded zucchini every day here if I had it, and since zucchini plants are so prolific int he summer, I was hoping that I’d be able to put back some of the bounty for use over the fall/winter. If shredding first and then drying doesn’t work, I’ll likely just be going without zucchini over the winter. We’ll see what happens.
I always shred my zucchini first before drying. I have also done the same with cucumbers since I have had so many. When I want to make those delicious cucumber sandwiches, I already will have the dried shredded cucumbers to mix with the cream cheese.
Also have dried slices of both and added spices, basil, or whatever to them before drying and they are good as a snack.