One of the most delicious ways to prepare young and tender zucchini, well, besides, of course, the traditional “circles” fried in a frying pan - zucchini baked in the oven with sour cream, mushrooms and cheese!
If you prefer the baking process to all other cooking options in the kitchen, and the frying pan is on your farthest shelf, especially since the question of how to cook zucchini will resolve itself.
Lovers of mushroom julienne will especially like my recipe for baked zucchini in the oven, and you’ll find out why when you read the recipe to the end!
Are you intrigued? Then welcome to my humble kitchen, where I will tell you how to deliciously bake zucchini in the oven to treat your loved ones to an easy and dietary summer zucchini dish. We will cook zucchini baked in the oven with cheese and sour cream and even mushrooms!
Ingredients:
- zucchini 0.7 kg;
- onion 1 pc.;
- fresh champignons 200 g;
- sour cream 5-6 tbsp;
- garlic 2-3 cloves;
- hard cheese 80 g;
- flour 1 tbsp;
- seasonings, spices and herbs to taste;
- thyme 3-4 sprigs;
- greenery.
How to deliciously cook zucchini in the oven with mushrooms:
We chop the washed mushrooms and zucchini quite coarsely so that during the baking process, the zucchini baked in circles in the oven will retain its fragile structure of the first summer vegetables intact. The width of the circle is 1.5-2 cm. We cut the mushrooms randomly, preferably large ones into 4 parts.
We place the circles and mushrooms in the pan alternately, pour a little water into the bottom, literally 0.4-0.5 cm, to speed up the process of stewing and releasing the juice.
Season the zucchini and mushrooms with your favorite seasonings and aromatic herbs to taste. Place the pan on the stove over medium-moderate heat and simmer (cover with a lid only for the first 5-7 minutes of simmering and preferably do not stir the zucchini) until the vegetables have reduced in their original volume by about half.
As soon as most of the zucchini and mushroom juice has evaporated, add the chopped onion and continue to simmer everything together.
When there is very little vegetable juice left at the bottom of the pan, pour in sour cream and add salt. Simmer in sour cream for about 7-8 minutes, and then to thicken the sauce, sift a spoonful of flour into the pan and stir. Simmer for a few more minutes until thickened. Thus, our sauce becomes very similar to the one in which we usually prepare traditional julienne - lovers of these dishes will appreciate this presentation of ordinary zucchini!
Arrange the zucchini with mushrooms in sour cream into portioned fireproof molds or transfer to one large form.
Place thyme leaves or sprigs and garlic slices on top.
I often prepare this vegetable side dish during zucchini season. I also often make different marinade - sometimes I mix mayonnaise with sour cream, sometimes with low-fat yogurt, but most often I mix sour cream with a chicken egg - my family loves this filling the most. The side dish turns out juicy and tasty if you like this combination of products.
To prepare zucchini with mushrooms baked in the oven, prepare the ingredients according to the list. Wash the vegetables under running water and dry.
Peel the champignon caps, cut into four parts, and place in a deep bowl.
Cut the zucchini into large pieces, chop the onion finely and add to the mushrooms.
Salt the vegetables, pepper, add mayonnaise. If mayonnaise is fatty, mix it with sour cream.
Mix everything thoroughly so that all the vegetables are covered with mayonnaise, transfer to a baking dish. If desired, you can add chopped garlic.
Place tomatoes cut in half on top; they will add juiciness to the baked vegetables.
If you want a cheese crust, sprinkle the vegetables with grated cheese at the beginning of baking and bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 35-40 minutes. If you want soft and stringy cheese, sprinkle it on the vegetables 10 minutes before the end of cooking. I check the readiness of the vegetables with the tip of a knife; if it easily fits into the zucchini slice, then the rest of the vegetables are ready.
Serve zucchini with mushrooms baked in the oven as a side dish for meat dishes. When serving, sprinkle with fresh herbs.
Step 1: prepare the mushrooms.
So, let's start preparing a dish with mushrooms. We rinse the champignons under running water to remove various contaminants, immediately after that we wipe them dry with paper kitchen towels and place them on a cutting board. We cut off a slice from each mushroom stem, renewing it, and then cut the mushrooms into thin layers or medium pieces. Transfer the prepared champignons to a clean plate.Step 2: prepare the zucchini.
Moving on to the zucchini, rinse it thoroughly under running water. Then we place it on a cutting board and look at the peel; if the vegetable is young, then leave it, and if not, then the peel should be cut off. Afterwards, cut the clean zucchini into pieces of arbitrary shape approximately 2 - 3 centimeters in size and transfer to a separate plate. Step 3: chop the onion.
Next, peel the red onion, rinse it under running water and place it on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut it either into very small pieces or into beautiful thin half rings. Leave the processed onion on the cutting board. Step 4: prepare mushrooms and zucchini.
Place the frying pan on the burner, pour in a little vegetable oil and turn the stove temperature to medium. Place chopped onion in the heated fat and fry it until golden brown for 2 - 3 minutes. Then add the chopped champignons and fry them for 10 minutes or until the moisture has completely evaporated, stirring everything periodically with a kitchen spatula to prevent it from burning.
Next, add pieces of zucchini to the mushrooms, salt and ground black pepper to taste and mix everything with a kitchen spatula. Fry the dish for a few more minutes until fully cooked zucchini And education on its surface delicious brown crust. As soon as this happens, you can turn off the heat and proceed to serving the dish.
Step 5: serve mushrooms with zucchini.
Place the prepared zucchini with mushrooms on portioned plates while they are still hot and serve as a separate dish for a light dinner, a Lenten lunch, or as a side dish for baked, stewed or fried meat. A simple yet delicious dish for the whole family is ready! Bon appetit!
You can replace the zucchini with zucchini, and instead of champignons, use any other edible mushrooms of your choice.
In addition to red onions, you can add chopped garlic cloves, eggplant, various greens, such as parsley, dill, green onions, celery or spinach to a dish of zucchini and mushrooms.
Aromatic spices such as basil, marjoram, savory, cumin, ground white pepper, and fennel go well with vegetable dishes.
The taste of the finished dish primarily depends on the quality of the products. Zucchini is best purchased from mid-May to mid-July. Previously, they will not contain any benefit, but the chemicals, thanks to which it is possible to put up an early harvest for sale, will only cause harm to the body, and later the fruits become tough and have denser skin and seeds.
The optimal size for zucchini is 20-27 cm, the color should be even. You should not purchase fruit with dents, because... These are manifestations of the beginning processes of decay. Fresh zucchini has a juicy tail, if you break it off, droplets will appear on the scrap. Otherwise, the fruit was picked more than 12 hours ago.
You also need to be very careful with mushrooms. It is a mistake to think that champignons cannot be poisoned. Dense and elastic caps, even shade, absence of dents and a characteristic light mushroom aroma are the main signs of high-quality mushrooms. If you decide to use forest ones, purchase them only from trusted sellers, or be very careful when collecting them yourself.
So, to prepare this dish we need to peel the onion, rinse it, cut it into thin rings or half rings.
Cut the carrots into strips or grate them on a coarse grater.
Wash the mushrooms and cut into even slices. Be careful, some require additional processing. Even champignons, especially if they are already large in size, can be doused with boiling water or boiled for a couple of minutes in boiling, lightly salted water, let alone wild mushrooms.
Pour oil into a frying pan, heat it, add the onion and fry it until golden brown. Then add chopped carrots.
Simmer the vegetables together for a couple of minutes, add mushrooms to them, stir and add salt.
Chop fresh herbs and add them to the rest of the ingredients.
All that remains is to peel and seeds the zucchini (if the fruit is young, you can simply remove the tails), wash it, cut into strips and add to the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for a couple of minutes, add spices, mix thoroughly and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
Mushrooms and zucchini are ready. All that remains is to choose the most suitable side dish.
Zucchini fried with mushrooms can be prepared as an independent dish, as a spread on bread or as a side dish for meat. The vegetables are in perfect harmony with each other, saturated with the aroma of garlic and dill. The result is a kind of lazy squash caviar with champignons, tasty, filling and very aromatic.
Chilled fried zucchini is very good, especially on the second day, when it sits in the refrigerator and is completely saturated with all the aromas of spices and herbs. Therefore, I recommend preparing a large portion from a kilogram of zucchini (2-3 pieces), which can be stored in a clean glass container for 3-4 days in the refrigerator. Among the obligatory components of the dish, which cannot be excluded from the list of ingredients, are dill, garlic, tomato paste and sour cream. If you remove at least one of them, the dish will lose its characteristic taste. But you can do without green onions if you suddenly don’t have them on hand. It gives the dish a special, spring-like fresh aroma, but it will be delicious even without green onions!
Ingredients
- zucchini 1 kg
- champignons 200 g
- onions 1-2 pcs.
- garlic 2 teeth
- dill 0.5 bunch
- green onions 0.5 bunch.
- salt 1-2 tsp.
- mixture of ground peppers 2 wood chips.
- vegetable oil 3 tbsp. l.
- tomato paste 2 tbsp. l.
- sour cream 2 tbsp. l.
How to cook fried zucchini with mushrooms
Serve the dish warm or chilled. Delicious with a slice of baguette, fresh or lightly toasted.
