Autumn Stewed Zucchini

All fall and winter I make this dish. It is one of my favorites and so easy to make, although it does take a bit of time on the stovetop. This is a Christmas Eve staple in my family, and something that is perfect to make as we say goodbye to summer and hello to fall. It is warm and comforting, yet uses those great big zucchini a lot of you must have in your gardens right about now…

Autumn Stewed Zucchini

Ingredients:

1/2 garlic clove, chopped
1 tbs olive oil
5 small zucchini
2-3 plum tomatoes or 1 large garden tomato
1 tbs chopped parsley

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a medium size pot, add garlic, and cook about 2 minutes until the garlic is a little brown. Do not burn!

2. Wash, scrape, and chop up all the zucchini to uniform sizes. By scrape I mean taking your knife and just kind of scraping off some of the peel. You want a little of the dark green stuff in the dish because it adds flavor, but too much and it will make it bitter.

3. Add the zucchini to the pot. Make sure the stove is set no higher than medium as you don’t want the zucchini to burn. Meanwhile, chop up your tomato(es) and take out all the seeds. Add this and the 1 tbs of chopped parsley to the pot and stir.

4. Cover the pot. Relax for a bit and just give the ingredients a little stir every 10 minutes or so. After about 30 minutes if the zucchini is sticking a little add water 1/4 of a cup at a time. When the whole pot becomes one cohesive mixture the dish is done. For me, with this many zucchini, it is usually after about an hour.

This is what it should look like when it’s done:

How I plan my night…

Last night when I got home from the market I unloaded all the groceries, threw in a load of laundry, and got started on the zucchini. While it was in the pot slowly cooking along I made my dinner and watched 90210 (which was lame at first, but then as fun as the Hills if you like stupid drama haha- which I do). Then, when the zucchini was done I put it into containers on the counter (to cool down), washed my pot, cleaned up the downstairs, put the zucchini away, and went to bed. I am definitely a fan of running three or four chores at a time as I think they simply get done so much faster. Have a great day! I am so excited it is already Wednesday!!!