Baked Parmesan Zucchini
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Crisp, tender zucchini sticks oven-roasted to perfection. It’s healthy, nutritious and completely addictive!
Zucchini and parmesan cheese. It’s a match made in heaven. And if all veggies were like this, I’d become a vegetarian tomorrow.
No, but really, this is by far one of the best veggie side dishes I’ve ever made. And the best part about this is that there is absolutely no deep frying or sauteing of any kind.
Simply cut your zucchini into quarters lengthwise, sprinkle on that Parmesan goodness and throw into the oven to let it get nice and crisp.
I like to let mine broil the last couple of minutes to get that nice golden brown crust. It’s so good, even your picky eaters will be begging for seconds and thirds!
Baked Parmesan Zucchini
Ingredients
- 4 zucchini, quartered lengthwise
- ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a cooling rack with nonstick spray and place on a baking sheet; set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine Parmesan, thyme, oregano, basil, garlic powder, salt and pepper, to taste.
- Place zucchini onto prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with Parmesan mixture. Place into oven and bake until tender, about 15 minutes. Then broil for 2-3 minutes, or until crisp and golden brown.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
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Well don’t these look so good! I made some baked parm zucchini last week! I bought a value-pack of zuke from TJs and I swear it was multiplying in the fridge, so I figured a little cheese wouldn’t hurt it to jazz it up. Yours is gorgeous and you make zucchini look amazing 🙂
I made some and it turned out soggy. How do you get the zucchini to be crispy? Mine tasted amazing but the texture was very off.
Kasey, did you follow the instructions and broil these for an additional 2-3 minutes to let them get nice and crisp?
Sorry for the beginner question to follow… I’ve NEVER broiled, but I did search it and what not. Based on my limited understanding on it from reading on the internet. When you broil for the zucchini for 2 minutes to get browned, are you saying you take out the baking sheet from the oven, after the 15 minutes of baking, and put it in the broiler (lower part of the oven) for those extra 2 minutes? Thanks in advance! This recipe looks delicious and I want to get it just right for Thanksgiving 🙂
I’m not sure how your oven is set up but my broiler is in the same oven space as everything else so once the 15 min is up, I just change the oven settings to broil without transferring the baking sheet. But if your broiler is located at the bottom, then yes, you are exactly right!
Diana,
Broiling is usually used to brown food or quickly cook at high heat. I’m not aware of any broilers in the bottom of an oven, because they have to heat the surface of the food, not the bottom of the pan. To check, put your oven on Broil and check to see which element heats up. It should glow red hot. And usually you move the oven rack to the highest available level, keeping your food at least a couple of inches below the heating elements. With something as small as the zucchini in this recipe I would think that would be the top level.
Also, broiling cooks hot and fast so stand right there and keep an eye on it. It will burn in no time.
I hope that helps. Good luck.
I had an in-the-wall oven that had the broiler on the bottom. You could like pull it out. It was an older oven. There is no way you could put the rack in it.
When I had a gas stove, the broiler was a drawer under the oven. It fit a cake pan though, so you should be able to put the baking sheet in there, assuming they are all uniform in size.
Depending on where Diana is from, broil may not be a term commonly used. For example, here in New Zealand we use the word grill rather than broil, when something needs to be put under the top oven heating element for the last few minutes to finish it off, brown it, melt a topping etc.
Some stoves do have broilers on the bottom. I had one. Personally I liked it better. I could do the baking and broiling separately…:)
Years ago I had an over with the broiler where most of the storage draws in the newer overs are, so Yes take it out and slip it down into the broiler section. let it broil there and mmm mmmmm good eats!!!
Put them on your broiler pan and put in the bottom to broil for 2-3 Minutes.
She probably did not. Like kids people do not listen!!!! Not an insult!!!!
If you have to say “not an insult” after something you say, then it’s usually an insult. Unless, you have something useful to add to the discussion, you really shouldn’t comment
Marie Czarnecki- it’s hard to say things without emotion and have them come across with your meaning. I knew exactly what your comment meant 🙂 I too tend not to listen/skim over content. Imagine the next generation – they are not learning the art of conversation 🙁
Regarding the do not listen comment. The fact that a newish cook is trying a recipe shows she or he is truly interested in “listening” or in this case “reading”. A lot of us have made mistakes in reading a recipe including yours truly and I think each time is a learning event. Asking questions is a good thing don’t you think?
Re the oven: I, too, have a gas oven with the broiler at the bottom – “bottom” meaning underneath the baking oven. Nowadays there is always the internet to look up things like “how to broil”. In my day – I’m 80 years old now – I relied on my mother to teach me. Fortunately she was an excellent cook. My daughter-in-law’s mother did not like to cook, so she would be one to come up with “how do you broil”. I don’t mind because I love to pass on what my mother taught me.
I love this recipe. Using the rack allows the zucchini to get heat all around it, drying it so it is less soggy. And definitely you have to watch while it’s under the broiler.
She is listening but just lives on a different planet – like me. In most English speaking countries outside the US we use the term ‘Grill’ instead of ‘Broil’.
So in England, Australia etc. you should put the zuchs under your griller (not to be confused with a gorilla). Broiling is a rarely used term outside the the US but when it is I think it would refer to grilling in shallow liquid?
Not exactly – here is a great tutorial on how to use your broiler: http://www.thekitchn.com/kitchen-basics-how-to-use-your-112585.
I followed explicitly the instructions..broiling etc. …They still came out soggy, limp and unappetizing
I’m sorry that this recipe did not turn out the way you had imagined. I only post recipes that have been successfully tested in my own kitchen, and as you can see from the comments here, many of these readers have had great outcomes in the final dish as well. However, I understand that we all have different taste preferences, and I really appreciate your honest feedback.
David it can also depend on your elevation and what type of oven you have i.e. gas or electric height in the broiler etc. when broiling anything it’s all about watching and waiting. In higher elevations I have found the broiling process takes longer, also it can depend on the age of your zucchini. I have taken a large zucchini and cut it down and it came out a bit soggy with a recipe close to this. One thing I do for larger suck I is to core out the seeds then proceed until top is browned and I get the crispness. Good luck budding chef!
David, does your oven have a fan-forced option? Mine does and my zucchinis came out perfect. As I didn’t know the term “broil ” which I would confuse with “boil” I just placed my Pyrex dish in the top half of the oven on fan-forced, a coffee cup of water in the base, and left to cook for about 20 mins. Came out lightly browned and lightly crisped.
Sounds to me like they inadvertently got overcooked that would be why they were soggy try cooking them less next time. It’s common for the calibration of ovens to be different. And then everyone take a breath and put your testosterone in your pocket it’s kind of silly to be having such a snippy conversation about zucchini..
Oh and the recipe looks good to me I will be trying it.
well sounds good to me, I’m going to try it tonight in Arkansas, broiler on top eh,
Dear Chung-Ah,
Older broilers have the broiler on the bottom of the oven. I had an oven with a bottom broiler as a child in the 60’s, and also experienced this on a recent trip to Mexico. My rental had a bottom broiler oven.
Hope this information is helpful!
Hi Chung-Ah,my name is Patty. I was wondering if I could use my grill instead of the broiler ? I can’t use it right now. Also,will it still come out crispy from the grill ? thanks so very much and have a wonderful day.
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
I’ve cook them on the grill before it’ll work great just be careful not to burn them you may want to put them on one of those Grill mats so they don’t fall through the the Grate. You’ll get the wonderful Smoky Taste from the grill along with the parmesan flavor….YUM!!!
When I read the recipe I skimmed over it and went to it in the kitchen without carefully reading how she used a rack. I didn’t use a rack and mine turned out soggy too :/ oops! So make sure that you have done that. Otherwise maybe turn up the cooking temo? Next time I will make sure to use my cooling rack to get that crisp texture. Thanks for the recipe!
Hannah, it is best to read a recipe at least twice prior to cooking – you won’t believe the difference it makes!
This is GREAT ADVICE, especially for those new to cooking and it’s terms!
I read three times or the same reason. For people who may not be super savvy cooks those details can be important. I actually thought that rack did something else before cooking and, per your instructions, you didn’t use them during cooking/baking. But that didn’t make sense either so I started reading the comments and now I get it. Could’ve saved time if that detail was clear in the instructions though, that’s the theme of these recipes after all 🙂 Anyway great idea, thanks for sharing!
Ugu, the instructions clearly indicate to place zucchini onto prepared baking sheet (the baking sheet in which a cooling rack is placed onto the baking sheet as indicated in the first step).
And when you get older, like me, you have to read it 3 or 4 times! I’m definitely trying that heart healthy zucchini recipe – it looks yummy! Your instructions were very clear and easy to follow. Thanks for sharing!
Haha yes, I did that too!
Mine were soggy despite broiling as well. About 15 min left to go with *correct* rack usage this time, fingers crossed.
I also just threw some grape tomatoes in the pan, which soaked up the extra seasonings and juice, and they were AMAZING.
I also blot the zucchini first to strip some moisture.
Ha!! I DID the same thing.. I think I caught mine in time.. luckily if you grow zucchini.. it is plentiful! I have them back in the oven on the rack!!
I have seen mainly recipes that work better if you raise the food off the bottom of the pan. I tried placing cookie cooling grates in the pans that I already have – worked good but not perfect!I finally went to out and bought a roasting pan with a flat grate in it! Fantastic!
I think it could depend on the zucchini itself I’ve lived in 4 different states and some places the zucchinis had less water than others more of a dry squash then a cucumber like vegetable. Not sure if anyone understands what I mean…. Anyways I think adding salt to them and letting dehydrate a bit and def using a baking rack will let these crisp up. When I’ve used a juicier zucchini I’ve sliced them into discs instead of spears to make them less meaty and become less soggy.
I’ve made these, best thing to do when you slice them is put salt on each one and soak in paper towel and that gets the moisture out of the zucchini!!
^^^^Dawn is exactly right!
I, too, made some and they turned out very soggy. They were delicous, but soggy. I did do the broil at the end, but that would not have helped Kasey. I think, at least partly, our problems resulted from not putting the zuch on a raised cooking grid, as it appears in the picture.
The parmesan mixture feel right off the zucchini so I had cooked zucchini with toasted parmesan mixture underneath. This was a waste of perfectly good zucchini.
After they were done I cut mine up in chunks and sautéed in olive oil with peppers and onions.Very good
Mine turned out soggy twice (once burnt on the top from the broil) at the same time. So my husband told me to brush on the oil add the herbs and garlic only for the bake. Add the cheese only right before the broil part and it worked better the third time.
Have you ever frozen them?