When I was a kid, two of my dad’s best friends from the old days, Minnie and her husband, Joe, would have us all over for dinner whenever we were in town and, in the summer, Minnie would serve these incredible fried zucchini fritters from the squash in her garden.
These are kind of like that…
except, they’re baked, not fried, and they’re thin enough to wrap around taco fillings, like the salmon I was making.
Note: these are primarily grated squash, cheese, eggs, and seasonings, but there is a bit of bread crumbs called for. If you need to go totally wheat and/or gluten free, I suggest trying whatever you would normally replace 1/4 cup of bread crumbs with in a recipe.
INGREDIENTS
•4 cups (packed) grated zucchini and/or summer squash
•1 large egg
•1/2 tsp grated black pepper
•1/4 tsp sea salt
•1/4 tsp garlic powder
•1/4 tsp cumin
•1/4 tsp Aleppo pepper
•1/2 cup grated Kasseri cheese*
•1/4 cup bread crumbs
*Or, you could use Parmesan cheese.
Heat your oven to 450º and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Shred the zucchini and/or summer squash, and then press out as much liquid as you can – I gathered mine into paper towels and pressed through a colander, then grabbed handfuls and squeezed like heck over the sink before adding to the mixing bowl.
Note: there is a heckofa lot of liquid in shredded zucchini and/or summer squash. You don’t have to get them entirely dry, just take care of most of the liquid.
Whisk the egg with the seasonings in a mixing bowl, then stir in the cheese, bread crumbs, and shredded zucchini and/or summer squash until well blended.
Spoon about 1/4 cup of the mixture onto the parchment paper lined baking sheets and press into a thin circle, about five inches in diameter.
Repeat with the remaining squash mixture. Using a 1.4 cup scoop, I ended up with seven taco shells.
Arrange the pans on two racks in the oven and bake for 24 or 25 minutes, until the shells look a bit crispity and browned around the edges. Flip the pans on the racks after 12 minutes.
Once the taco shells are baked, gently peel them off the parchment paper. I stacked mine between more squares of parchment paper while I put the rest of dinner together.
These thin little squash cakes could’ve easily handled regular taco fillings, but I was feeling in a salmon kind of mood, so we enjoyed ours wrapped around a bit of marinated, then baked salmon, with chopped lettuce, tomato, onion, and parsley and a very nice rémoulade sauce on the side.
Tasty tacos!
Leftovers were just as good the next day, heated lightly in the ‘wave and wrapped around a bit of chopped salad, tho’ I mebbe should’ve made a nice curried tuna salad.