Golden zucchini salad can be either a delicious and easy appetizer, lunch or dinner. These thin golden slices together with rosemary, olives and cheese make a wonderful and healthy meal. In addition, you only need four ingredients (plus the dressing) and it comes together in less than 20 minutes. That makes it one of my favourite salads.
I love salads. They are so versatile and colourful. Also, creating a salad bowl is easy and quick. And so is this golden zucchini salad. Look at these vibrant colours! It is just a really beautiful plate to which you can’t say no.
If you are a salad lover, then you have to check out these salad recipes; a healthy broccoli egg salad, an always amazing Cantaloupe melon arugula salad, a delicious roasted cauliflower pomegranate salad, a fruity nectarine bacon salad or a winter radicchio salad.
Probably, we all agree that green zucchini is the most common one. How many times did you see or buy a golden one? Yeah, that’s rarely happened. But why we see them so rarely? They both have the same shape, both looking long and slender and both tasting the same. The only thing that’s different is the colour; the vivid golden-yellow vs green. I hope to see the golden zucchini more often.
Furthermore, you can either use green or golden zucchini to create this vegetarian dish. However, the effect won’t be as wow as with the golden zucchini. I like how the strips look. What do they remind you of? When I sent a photo to my mother, she said they look like fresh-made pasta. Wink. And if you give them a good look you can really see tagliatelle resemblance.
Crunchy rosemary and delicious cheese
Moreover, I picked rosemary simply because I love its aroma. Also, it is really delicious when fried and crunchy. Yummy! In order to quickly remove all the rosemary leaves from the stem, hold the top of the stem and with the other hand pull toward the base of the stem. This was a two-second tip. Wink.
When choosing cheese, you can go crazy. I mean, you can pick any cheese you like most. But, yeah, I can go crazy with cheese. I love cheese so much that I have always problems by picking only one. However, I decided on Edamer but was also looking at Parmesan, Emmental and Feta cheese. Ufff, it was a hard choice.
Oh, I just thought of it; a lovely and creamy Burrata would also go really good with the golden zucchini salad. I already made a note to myself, for the next time I make this salad. You might also like this beetroot carpaccio with burrata.
Ingredients for two portions of golden zucchini salad:
- 2 golden zucchini (or green)
- 10 black olives (pitted)
- cheese (cubes or grated)
- 1-2 fresh rosemary stems
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- a pinch of salt
- 1Tbsp balsamico vinegar
- baguette (or any bread)
Wash the zucchini and slice them into thin and long strips. One of the easiest ways is using a potato peeler. At the same time, wash also the rosemary and remove the leaves from the stem (use the tip I gave you above).
In a larger frying pan drizzle some olive oil. When it gets hot, add the rosemary and half of the zucchini strips. Probably, you could add all at once, but there is a chance they would break (consequently they wouldn’t look so wonderful) and not cook evenly. Therefore, better prepare them in two batches (or use two pans at the same time).
Fry the strips for 3-4 minutes with occasional pan shaking. Once they get glossy, shiny and easy to bend, remove them from the pan. Cover them with some aluminium foil, in order to keep them warm. Continue with the second batch of zucchini strips.
Also, make sure the strips don’t turn brown and rosemary doesn’t burn. Rosemary leaves should be darker and crunchy but not burnt. You should still be able to taste the rosemary. Meanwhile, prepare the dressing. In a small bowl, mix olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt. A simple salad dressing can taste amazing too.
After all of the zucchini strips are ready, lay them in a nice messy order on a serving plate, sprinkle with crunchy rosemary and drizzle with the salad dressing.
Finally, add the black olives (whole or cut) and cheese cubes on top. In addition, you can serve some slices of bread as well. Bread goes always great with salads.
Serve this golden zucchini salad as antipasti, lunch or a light dinner. Also, it is a wonderful side dish. It is delicious either warm or cold, which makes it a perfect meal all year long. A couple of bread slices are a must if you like to dip it into the dressing. You can pick a brown bread, pumpkin bread or Naan bread too.
Enjoy!
PS
If you like the recipe, if you make the recipe or if you have any new ideas how to improve or change it, let me know in the comments section below or alternatively share your photos and reactions with me on Instagram (@Passionspoon), Facebook or Twitter (@PassionSpoon1). Simply use the hashtag #passionspoonrecipes in your posts. I would love to see them! (wink)
