I discovered that I dice zucchini differently than how the Internet usually recommends you do it. Shocker. Today I'm going to show you how to dice a zucchini - my way and the Internet way.
The goal is the same. Dice a zucchini so most pieces have a bit of tender green skin, each dice is evenly sized and there's no splatters of finger blood in the mix.
An easy enough kitchen task once you know how to do it, right up there with how to dice an onion.
If you live anywhere near me you've probably read the local police reports about gangs of zucchini bandits throwing these courgettes at passersby and onto neighbouring rooftops in an attempt to get rid of them.
Because it's zucchini season. Otherwise known as Zummer. I hilariously wrote a post on how to grow and stake zucchini that will get you even MORE zucchini over the zummer season.
To this day I'm not sure why I thought encouraging the world's home gardeners to produce even more of these things was a good idea. But it's done now and that zucchini post has been shared enough times that I think we can safely assume it will be raining zucchini onto rooftops until the end of time.
So let's get to the business at hand ... how to dice a zucchini. First let's take a look at my way.
Dicing a zucchini AKA courgette
Method 1
- Lay your zucchini down and cut the ends off.
- Cut the zucchini into thirds.
- Flip each third so a cut end is down.
- Slice straight down into the dice size you want.
- Flip the zucchini and cut again along the length.
- You'll now have zucchini sticks. Cut across the sticks to create your dice.
I know. It's hard to understand from photos so here's a quick video of me dicing a zucchini.
That's how I do it and how I've always done it. Now what's the most recommended way to dice one?
Method 2
- Lay the zucchini down and cut the ends off.
- Slice one long strip off of the zucchini lengthwise so you can lay it flat on the counter without rolling.
- Slice the zucchini lengthwise into 4 or 5 long strips. Stack them back together.
- Slice the stack lengthwise into 4 or 5 strips.
- Gather the strips together and cut across them into a dice.
Either way works. I find working with smaller chunks makes it easier to make even cuts but if you don't mind a bit of wiggle in your cuts the other way works perfectly well too.
Like I mentioned it IS zucchini season and as I write this post I've harvested 8 of them in the past 3 days. I've given one to my mother, one to the family in my rental house, one to a guy who lives in a van, and the rest I've eaten.
Except for the 4 that are in my fridge from before I harvested those 8.
Plans for those include my Chocolate Banana Smoothie, double chocolate zucchini bread and a really fast, surprisingly delicious, creamy pesto pasta (recipe coming in a couple of days).
It's "surprisingly delicious" because it only has 5 ingredients and can be on the table in 20 minutes. I find if cheese is one of the 5 ingredients in a 5 ingredient dinner, you can pretty much rely on it being good. If it's not? Just add more cheese.
My goal this year was to make sure I didn't waste one SINGLE zucchini. I always say I'm going to do that and then at some point during the zummer I open up my crisper to find 5 melted, oozing zucchini.
Which are decidedly not surprisingly delicious.
where I sometimes post things but if Instagram was in my crisper it would probably be melting and oozing.
I have never been able to grow the wretched things. My farmers market people offered to hire me to make theirs less prolific.
I love zucchini "carpaccio." Slice zukes super thin lengthwise - easiest if you have a mandoline, but also a risk for blood if careless. Arrange nicely (you do you) ob a serving dish. Drizzle with lemon juice and your fave tasty olive oil. Salt, fresh pepper grinds, some grated lemon zest. For fancier some parmesan shaved or grated over the top.
My mouth is watering. I'll have to check the roof for zukes.
I rarely eat it raw but I slice it thin like that and then saute it until it's golden brown and top it in the pan with grated parmesan. ~ karen!
No zucchini here this year (s%#@ woodchuck!) BUT in years where I've had a lot getting ready to liquefy in the fridge, I grate it and freeze in ziplocks. Pull out in winter for zucchini bread or zucchini cakes (like crab cakes) or mixing into spaghetti 'n' sauteed veg. I don't blanch first, but you probably could and maybe should.
I do that and for some reason with zucchini I find I never use it from the freezer. I bag it up nice ready for zucchini bread and then it sits there, lol. ~ karen!
I only planted one plant - it was gorgeous with a beautiful fruit growing so pretty - until it wasn't. The dang borer got to it and it was toast in just a day. I didn't know that light green frass on the stem was the borer - lesson learned but no zucchini. Third year in a row so now I'm trying fall zucchini - florida - and maybe the borers will be gone by the time I plant a seedling. The squash bugs got all the yellow squash except I did get to taste ONE! Stinkin squash bugs. I also planted lots of winter squash and got 3! One was a cushaw that grew 11 pounds and was delicious. It made one fresh meal and 6 bags of frozen mashed squash for the freezer then the DANG squash bugs got all the rest except for 2 tiny ones that I picked just to spite them. I did get tromboncino which were hardy and resisted until finally they succumbed. The bugs came in hoards. I've pulled them all and the dang squash bugs are all over my tomatoes! What the ???
They have stung them so bad and the horn worms are just starting. I go out with long scissors and cut them in half along with any squash bug that I can sneak up on. I'm glad you can pick!
You're lucky you can plant twice in a season like that! Although, I can here with zucchini but I doubt if I seeded now it would have time to grow and produce. Maybe I'll give it a shot for fun. I can do that while I replant my beans. For the 4th time. Thank you very much family of rabbits. ~ karen!
Mr. Aitch and I love zucchini but we’ve not been successful in growing our own. Some bug got into the vines and killed them. I haven’t tried to grow anything since then.
If I lived closer, I’d help take some zucchini off your hands. I’m hoping that someone at church brings in zucchini for anyone who wants them…like they did with cherries last month.
I don't go to church but if they're giving out free cherries I might rethink that. ~ karen!
Try starting them later in the year. Springtime isn't the only time to plant zucchini, but springtime it's more likely to get those vine borer jerks. I'm going to start my next round of summer squashes in a couple weeks. It all depends on your last frost date. As long as you have enough time for the plants to reach their maturity date (plus a little extra time to harvest more) before your last frost date you're good to plant.
Just don't let August fry them ;)
Where are these free cherries you speak of??? lol
Thanks not only for the great cutting tips but also for the language education. Your knife handling is excellent by the way. I now know that courgette is a French AND British way of saying zucchini. None of MY friends and family will be impressed by that knowledge, but I do enjoy learning something new.
You can really flip them out when you talk about a peppers as capsicums. ~ karen!
I’ve always sliced in rounds, stacked and diced.
I’m sure Lip’s friend Banner would like some zucchini.
LOL! Does handsome Banner like zucchini? Lip just rolls it around in his mouth then spits it out. ~ karen!
I make extra zucchini and summer squash into dill pickles. They work surprisingly well.
I did that one year! I used them in my bread and butter pickle recipe along with cucumbers. But I don't think I've done it since then. And since my cucumbers are now becoming equally prolific I should get on that. Thanks for the reminder. ~ karen!
IMO, your method is definitely the better way, Karen! I've never done it making the long slices, that would almost certainly end with blood. I've always done the round slices and that never worked all that well for me, but at least there wasn't blood.
From now on, I'm using your method!
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks! It really does work well for an even dice. ~ karen!
I slice them into rounds, then stack 3-4 round and cut them into triangles, like a wagon wheel. Four to six segments for smaller, eight for the largest rounds!
Ah HA! I should have mentioned, the reason I don't do it that way is because I like a dice as opposed to triangles. But if you're cool with triangles, as I'm sure you are, continue on! :) ~ karen!