Zucchinis are usually grown for their delicious fruits, but is the fruit the only edible thing? Or can we eat the whole plant?

Zucchinis(courgettes) are a part of almost every vegetable garden. This wonderful summer squash is fairly easy to grow but can be challenging to get it to make fruits. The plant loves warmth but hates the extreme heat and likes a lot of water. In a climate with very moist summers, zucchinis are one of the easy-growing vegetables, while in a drought climate, we celebrate every fruit.

Zucchinis in my garden

I’ve been growing zucchinis for many years now, and usually, I had lots of leaves but no fruits. The reason is that our springs are too cold and summers too drought for the plant to have continuous fruit production. This summer is again very droughty, but the plant got the much-needed boost in growth during an extremely warm spring, so the drought doesn’t bother the plants much.

I water the plants every day, and they are producing fruits, but still, you can see that they are struggling. Fruits can’t grow big, and once they reach medium size, they stop growing and start drying. This is why I harvest my zucchinis as soon as the fruits are of decent size. Even with the fruits being much smaller than normal, I still have an excess of fruits and harvest more than we can eat. This is why I’m storing the fruits for winter.

Storing zucchinis

Stored zucchinis will taste quite the same as the fresh ones. They can be frozen in bags without any thermic processing. The fresh fruits can be cut into slices or diced and frozen for later usage.

Another way is to dehydrate the fruits. They won’t be as same as the freshly frozen fruits, but the taste will still be the same. Zucchinis dehydrate well and won’t need long to be done. The time of the dehydration will depend on the thickness of the pieces. They can be cut into slices or cubes. Both will dehydrate well. It also doesn’t need to be cooked before. Fresh fruits can be placed on the tray and oven dehydrated for a few hours at 50-60°C/122-140°F.

The dehydrated pieces will take up much less space and won’t need to be stored in an electrical appliance. All you will need to store the pieces is a clean and dry glass jar.

What if the zucchinis didn’t produce any fruits? Could I still eat zucchinis?

The answer is yes.

Not many people know that almost the whole zucchini plant is edible. Fruits, flowers, leaves, and stems, all of these parts are edible and quite delicious. I actually planted my zucchinis very dense this year because I didn’t expect to have any fruits. I was prepared to harvest only flowers, stems, and leaves. So, although this year I have plenty of fruits, I’m still harvesting and cooking all of the plant parts.

Flowers

Flowers are one of the more known edible zucchini parts. Although very delicate, they can be an excellent addition to a meal or even a whole side or main dish. I harvest only the male flowers. There are always plenty of male flowers on the plants. So, although female flowers are usually a lot bigger, it is a shame to harvest the female flowers. One male flower is enough to produce fruit, and the rest can be harvested, especially if there is more than one plant in the garden.

Flowers are very delicate. They have to be prepared immediately or frozen in a way that they don’t get damaged. Once frozen, flowers are just as good when prepared. Still, they should be prepared while still frozen. Once the flowers defrost, they become quite squishy and crumbly when cooked. I fry my frozen flowers dipped in eggs and flour. As long as they are thrown into the hot oil still frozen they will hold their shape.

Stems

Stems, although they might look unedible with their thorns, are perfectly edible and can be an excellent dish. The only thing that separates them from being a painful thorny thing and a perfect light dish is the peeling off the thorns. When stems are older they can be easily peeled with a potato peeler, and younger stems can be scraped with a knife, like scraping a fish.

Once the thorns are off, the stems can be cooked or baked. Stems can be a perfect pasta replacement and prepared the same way as pasta. I like to cook my stems for 10 minutes in boiling water, then throw them on hot butter and mix them with bread crumbs.

Leaves

Leaves are one of the edible parts of the zucchini plant that is not as popular as the rest. They have a very strong taste. Only a couple of leaves will be enough for a nice dip, and just a dozen leaves will make a perfect creamy soup for the whole family.

Since the leaves are thorny and hairy, they need to be blanched before any other type of cooking. Once the water boils, the leaves need to be placed in the water and boiled for 1 or 2 minutes, and then immediately thrown into ice-cold water. Once the leaves cool down, they can be cooked, blended, or baked.

Leaves are usually used in blended meals and mixed with cream, milk, or cheese. They can be used the same way as spinach, chard, or an additional vegetable that brightens the sauce taste. I like to use leaves for cold meat dips. I blend my zucchini leaves with sour cream, cucumbers, and a spoon of mustard. Thes way the leaves work perfectly with baked pork and potatoes.

Knowing that zucchinis give us so many different plant parts to choose from can be very helpful in planning a meal, and maybe next time, we won’t feel bad when there are no fruits on the plant.