Our friends Aaron and Karen recently gave us a giant zucchini from their vegetable garden. Folks, this veggie was over 18 inches long!  I had the girls hold it so you get an idea of how big this zucchini was.

Aaron said this giant veggie is just one of many they have growing in their veggie patch, that in fact they have even larger zucchinis here.  I ask you, who is the master gardener here?  Apparently it is their daughter who is the gardener in their family. I need to get some gardening tips from her.

When I asked Karen what their secret was to growing such beautiful zucchinis, her response was: “Hmmm…we are not gardeners.  Just got lucky I think! Anyway, we have done nothing special to the plant…  We used fresh soil and just let it grow! ”   I did ask her where they got the plant, maybe it’s from a special nursery?  Karen said their daughter got the plants from Yamagami’s Nursery and Summerwinds Nursery both of which I have been to.  There is hope for me yet to grow some giant zucchinis 🙂

They have made pretty much every dish with zucchini you can think of – zucchini soup, zucchini bread, zucchini stew, zucchini muffins, and anything else.  It’s my turn now to get creative with this giant squash.

I did wonder if this zucchini would be full of seeds inside and if the skin would be tough.  But the entire zucchini was edible, the skin and all.  It was delicious and tender.

What I came up with are Zucchini Tofu Fritters. Since this was one huge veggie I used half of it to make approximately 50 fritters, but you can adjust the recipe down to make a lower quantity. Here is my recipe for Zucchini Tofu Fritters.

Zucchini Tofu Fritters:

Ingredients:

• 8 cups grated zucchini
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 1 box extra firm tofu mashed
• 2 cups dry bread crumbs
• 1 tsp paprika
• Salt and pepper
• Oil for frying

Directions:

• Place the grated zucchini and tofu in a colander and toss with salt.  Let sit for 15 minutes so the moisture is released from the zucchini and tofu. Push down periodically to release as much water as you can.

• Transfer the zucchini and tofu to a mixing bowl and add breadcrumbs, onions, salt, pepper, and paprika to taste.  Mix all ingredients together.

Form into little patties.

Shallow fry the patties until golden brown on both sides.

Serve with sour cream dip.

If you have an abundance of zucchini and squash growing this season like our friends Karen and Aaron, and Van (photos below), try making these zucchini fritters in addition to the zucchini muffins, cakes, and soup.