Baked Zucchini Fries
If there is one thing I have a hard time with when I am doing meal-planning, it is side dishes. I mean, yeah, I can throw together a mean salad to bring to a party, but I am talking side dishes for dinner every night. This has gotten infinitely harder since I started Weight Watchers because the only vegetables my husband will willingly eat are potatoes and corn, which also suck up a whole bunch of my points and those are my ice cream points. Yes, I just admitted to opting for ice cream over something that grows in the ground—wanna fight? My solution? Baked zucchini fries. Crispy, tender, salty, flavorful, dipped-in-pizza-sauce zucchini fries, fries that taste just like fried zucchini, only so much healthier.
If there is one thing I have a hard time with when I am doing meal-planning, it is side dishes. I mean, yeah, I can throw together a mean salad to bring to a party, but I am talking side dishes for dinner every night. This has gotten infinitely harder since I started Weight Watchers because the only vegetables my husband will willingly eat are potatoes and corn, which also suck up a whole bunch of my points and those are my ice cream points. Yes, I just admitted to opting for ice cream over something that grows in the ground—wanna fight? My solution? Baked zucchini fries. Crispy, tender, salty, flavorful, dipped-in-pizza-sauce zucchini fries, fries that taste just like fried zucchini, only so much healthier.
- Carbohydrate 0 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 0 g
- Fiber 0 g
- Protein 0 g
- Saturated Fat 0 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Recipe (454g)
- Sodium 0 mg
- Sugar 0 g
- Trans Fat 0 g
- Calories 0 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat your oven to 425 and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spray the sheet with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
- Cut the ends off your zucchini and then cut the zucchini in half so you have two short pieces. Set one half upright and cut it in half lengthwise.
- Then cut each of those halves into half again lengthwise, so you'll have 4 short, flat planks of zucchini.
- Stack two planks on top of each other, the rounded part up, and cut the planks into strips or “fries.” The thinner you cut the pieces, the crispier they will become (and they will also not taste at all like zucchini–this is, shockingly, how the picky eaters at my house prefer them), but the thicker they are, the more zucchini taste they’ll have. I actually really like them both ways, so I do a little bit of both.
- Repeat with the remaining zucchini. When done, blot the sticks dry with a paper towel. If you’re not watching calories, you can totally toss the zucchini in a little flour rather than drying them off–it will help the bread crumbs stick. Just place about 1/4 c. of flour in a bag, add the zucchini, and shake the bag around.
- Whisk together two eggs in a shallow pie plate.
- Set up a little station with the blotted zucchini, eggs, bread crumbs, and the baking sheet. Now…panko crumbs are awesome because they add a lot of crispness and they’re actually lower in calories than traditional bread crumbs. However, they also soak up moisture like a sponge, so if you start dipping the zucchini in the eggs and then rolling the sticks in the entire 1/2 c. of bread crumbs, after a few batches, the bread crumbs won’t stick anymore. So you’ll want to work with about 2 tablespoons of the bread crumb/Parmesan cheese mixture at a time.
- Dip the zucchini in the eggs and then shake the sticks to remove any excess egg. Roll the zucchini in the bread crumbs and then place them on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining zucchini, making sure the zucchini pieces aren’t touching each other.
- Bake at 425 for 10-12 minutes then remove from the oven and flip the fries with a spatula and bake for another 10-12 minutes or until the crumbs are golden brown and the zucchini are, for the most part, at least pretty crispy.
Deep-fried zucchini rounds yield easily to a heavy batter, but baking slender vegetable strips demands absolute precision. Moisture represents the primary enemy when transforming raw summer squash into a crisp-coated snack. Blotting the cut zucchini sticks thoroughly with paper towels before dipping them prevents the exterior coating from sliding off the wet surface. Panko breadcrumbs provide an exceptionally light crunch compared to standard fine crumbs, yet they easily saturate and clump if too much liquid transfers from the egg wash. Working in small batches with only two tablespoons of breadcrumb and Parmesan mixture at a time stops the coating from becoming gummy halfway through the assembly process. Spacing the sticks out meticulously on the prepared baking sheet ensures the hot air circulates freely around each piece instead of steaming them. High heat proves essential here, which is why the oven must be preheated to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Flipping the fries halfway through their twenty to twenty-four minute total cooking duration guarantees even browning on both sides. Leftover baked zucchini fries lose their crisp texture rapidly in the refrigerator, but a quick five-minute stint in a toaster oven at 350 degrees helps revive some of their initial crunch the next day.
