Crispy Baked Zucchini Fries

in Appetizers, Baby & Toddler Friendly, Lighter & Healthier, Veggies, Zucchini

Crispy Baked Zucchini Fries

I’m sad to report that our two rockstar zucchini plants fell victim to their nemisis: the vine borer. I’ve started a couple of new seedlings in hopes of being run over by zucchini again soon. Because I really do want more zucchini. But prior to their demise, they teamed-up and tested my love for zucchini. We were harvesting 5-7 gigantic zucchini a week.

When you’re over-run with zucchini, you have few other options than to get creative and deal with it. Or give them to friends and family, when they aren’t avoiding you and your mutant zucchini. We’ve eaten it for breakfast (the Foodie Toddler’s favorite), grilled (my favorite), in pasta (The Foodie Groom’s favorite), and zucchini parmesan (a house favorite). We repurposed that last dish into baked zucchini fries.

The coating on the zucchini fries gets very crispy in the oven while the insides get soft. You know, kinda like a real french fry… only not. Everyone in this house loves them! I prefer them dipped in a little ranch dressing, The Foodie Groom wants a bowl of marinara, and the kiddo? She just wants more. “Muh. Muh! MUUHHH!!!!”

What’s your favorite way to eat zucchini?

Crispy Baked Zucchini Fries

A fun way to serve zucchini - as crispy zucchini fries!

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups Panko breadcrumbs
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 lb zucchini, cut into 4-5-inch sticks

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 and line a baking sheet with parchment (or whatever non-stick method you prefer).
  2. Place flour in a large zipper bag.
  3. Whisk eggs with 2 Tbsp water and place in a shallow dish.
  4. Place Panko, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper in a shallow dish and mix to combine.
  5. Place zucchini in the bag with the flour and shake until well coated. Dip the zucchini into the egg and then into the panko, turning to coat well.
  6. Place breaded zucchini on the baking sheet.
  7. Bake 18-20 minutes, until golden brown.
  8. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce (we like ranch... and barbecue sauce).
  9. They're best the first day, but to store leftovers, store in a single layer on a plate, wrapped with ziploc. Reheat at 375 degrees for 5-7 minutes, until heathed through.

Notes

Yields: 6 servings (8 pieces)

Source: Confections of a Foodie Bride

Estimated time: 30 minutes

Nutritional Information
Calories: 108.8 | Fat: 2.4 | Fiber 1.7 | Protein 5.2 | Carbs 16.3
Weight Watchers Points Plus: 3

70 comments… add one
  • Love zucchini fries, yours came out so much prettier than mine do!

  • Cynthia

    Have you made zucchini strings? I LOVE those. I just juilianne a couple and lightly fry. They are usually gone before I finish the last one.

  • I already had a different recipe on my menu for these this week but it looks like I don’t need that one anymore. GREAT photo!

  • That’s funny. We were going to make these last night with dinner, but it was so HOT out, we ditched dinner plans and opted for take-out. These are definitely awesome! I think I like the baked version better than the traditional fried! πŸ™‚

  • i’ve never tried zucchini fries but now i want to! these look great!

  • I love zucchini fries! I need to make some soon.

  • Christine J

    Yay! Another idea for zucchini!

    My last plant finally succumbed to those nasty creatures. So now I’m starting over. So gross what those things do! Between the borers and the squash bugs, I’ve got my hands full!

  • I just had to go Google “vine borers.” Looks like our plants have fallen victim too. Ours are still alive, have beautiful blooms, but we haven’t gotten a single zucchini or squash.

    I have a recipe for yummy zucchini fritters and I also like ranch dressing. And of course, there is always bread!

  • I am a sucker for chocolate chip zucchini bread and ratatouille, but these baked “fries” may very soon be added to the list. Thanks!

  • I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE Zucchini! And these healthy baked fries are just the thing that I will make this weekend! Thanks for the great idea!

  • i make mine the same way! DELICIOUS! and of course you gotta dip them in some RANCH! πŸ™‚

  • Yum! Those look awesome. Pretty soon I’m going to have more zucchini than I know what to do with and I really want to give these a try. Thanks for the recipe, I’ll try it this summer for sure!

  • My husband claims he hates zucchini, but I’m fairly sure I might be able to persuade him by cleverly disguising the zucchini with the word “fries”!

  • I love that you’ve got your little girl begging for zucchini! Major parenting props to you!

    And damn do these look good! I’ve got some serious CSA zucchini in my fridge to use…and these look perfect!

  • I love zucchini .. pancakes .. strips .. fritters .. cake! πŸ™‚ This is looking fantastic and now I am craving for some of those.

  • Wow! I am so going to have to make these… I think they just might be the way to get my boys to eat zucchini!

  • I’m amazed at the results that you got without using any oil. I’ve had some zucchini sitting in the crisper for a few days, I am so excited to try this out. Grilled zucchini is definitely my favorite too, but I think these will be my husband’s preferred method of cooking.

  • yum! I’ve only had them in restaurants but you make it look easy to do at home….

  • What a great way to use the zucchini I just got!

  • I LOVE zucchini! It is one of the vegetables I always have on hand. I have two favorite ways to eat it. The first is to thinly slice it lengthwise and use zucchini instead of noodles for lasagna (I add some breadcrumbs ontop to absorb some of the moisture). The second way is a family favorite; zucchini boats, essentially you cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and scoop out the insides until you’re left with a “boat”, cook the insides you took out with some onion (salt, pepper, butter, season however you like), then mix in with your favorite meatloaf recipe and fill the boats with the meat mixture, top with tomato sauce & mozzarella cheese, and bake for about 40 minutes at 350.

    • Thanks for the tips! Have you tried salting your zucchini “noodles” instead of adding breadcrumbs? We did that for zucchini parmesan to pull out some of the excess moisture before breading and baking and I thought it worked great.

  • I just pinned these from another blog I read. Panko+zucchini sounds like heaven. Her version has Parmesan cheese, I might have to try both. And make some creamy jalapeno ranch for dipping.

  • We planted a bunch of zucchini and they didn’t grow because its too hot out πŸ™ I wish we had some like you! But I will go to the grocery and pick some up to try this!

  • That looks good and anything dipped in Ranch or barbecue sauce works for me!

  • Another great way to enjoy Zucchinis! πŸ™‚

  • Madeline

    Could I use regular breadcrumbs instead of panko? Would it still turn out as crispy?

    • You can use regular breadcrumbs but they won’t be quite as crispy as panko.

  • Niki

    Yummy! My favorite way to eat them is with a lemon aioli with lots of garlic! Can’t wait to try your baked version instead of frying them!

    • Ooooh, lemon aioli would be wonderful!

    • marge

      so how do u make ur lomon aioli,,i love garlic ,,i have meyer lomon oil, maybe use that along with fresh lemons..

  • I made these last night, and we loved them! Super crispy! For the record, Joey preferred them dipped in ranch, and I liked them better in marinara. I’m also loving the idea of zucchini parmesan.

  • These look fantastic!! I’m going to make some tonight for sure. I can’t wait.

  • Those make me just want to dive in and start munching!!

    Here’s a tip for deterring vine borers on future plants… Take a toilet paper roll and cut it into thirds. Each circle should be placed in your garden by pressing it into the soil about halfway down the length of the circle of cardboard. (place it so that you can see into the middle of the circle) Meanwhile, plant your new zucchini seed in the hole of the t.p. roll. Basically it’s like a small cardboard fortress that surrounds your new plant. The vine borer only digs in the soil at the surface to reach your plants. With the circle around it the borer cannot dig thru and will try elsewhere to find something green to eat. Works well with all squashes and beans too.

    Take care!
    ~Wendy

    • Wendy – Thanks so much for the tip! I’ve got an empty paper towel roll and a pair of scissors so I’m going to run outside and try this. Like right now.

  • Dixie

    Made these last night and they are the best ones I’ve tried!!

  • Ahh zucchini. I’d never grown it before and was sort of appalled when mine turned into a Little Shop of Horrors plant inside of a month! So I need zucchini recipes! I tried these also last week and they were delicious. I had the leftovers for lunch the next day, and they certainly weren’t as crispy, but delicious in a different way, thanks!

  • This looks amazing! I’ve been a “lurker” for a while, but it’s time to jump in and comment!

    Can’t wait to try this!

  • Julie

    If you put pieces of eggshells around the base of your plants it will stop those nasty slugs/vine killers.

  • What a great way to use zucchini! I have a ton of it that I picked up at the farmers market last weekend. πŸ˜€

  • I made these to go along with homemade bison burgers on Monday – absolutely delicious, and thoroughly enjoyed by my parents and fiancΓ©. Thanks for the recipe, Shawnda!

  • I MUST make these. They look wonderful!

  • Stephanie B

    Do you think I could try crackers instead panko? Not sure where to find the panko in the grocery store.. I usually fry mine with crackers and parm and they are marvelous but i’m going to try the baked version this evening. Hope it works!

    • You can definitely try – I’m pretty liberal when it comes to substitutions. My store carries panko in two places – on the baking aisle, right next to the bread crumbs & packaged fish fry/onion ring batter mixes and then on the International aisle, with the Asian foods.

  • We had these for dinner tonight and they were fabulous! We loved them with ranch and will be making them again soon.

  • Shannon

    These were great! I added about 1/3 cup of parmesan cheese to the panko and then sprinkled the fries with parmsan after baking. Thanks for the recipe!

  • Fried zucchini is definitely one of my favorite summer treats! If you put a little bit of buttermilk in with the egg, it seems to help the breading stay on a lot better.

  • wow!
    found you on Pinterest – LOVED these – my family gobbled them UP!
    I’ll have to double next time.

    linked you here:
    http://www.hollypanter.blogspot.com/2012/02/pinterest.html

  • Tamara

    I love zucchini too! I learned long ago, they are so much better when small. I pick mine small — they have MUCH more flavor and are easier to “use up”, as opposed to when they are just huge un-flavorful giants.

  • Thank you for sharing this recipe… This is my new favorite recipe for zucchini!

  • These look wonderful!! I shared a link your your recipe on my “favorite finds” this week. I can’t wait to try this with all of my zucchini this summer.

  • Ryan

    LOVED these! Only had 1 cup of panko crumbs, so I used 1 cup of parmesan cheese as well. Yum!

  • Jill

    do we need to use all of the 2 cups of panko crumbs? seems like a lot and I dont like to waste :/

    • It coats a lot of zucchini (48 pieces). If you’re worried about potential waste, just mix up half the dry ingredients and start there – you can always make more as you go along.

  • Deb

    Sorry you lost your zucchini plants. A suggestion that may or may not work: Plant nasturtiums and African Marigolds next to them…(Try to plant the starts and not seeds for the flowers, but plant seeds or starts for the squash so that the bug repellent flowers are there first.) Something eats our nasturtiums, and I have found squash bugs in the garden… but the zucchini survive. And I smash the squash bugs. Something new was out there in the garden this year and so I added the African Marigolds and it seemed to scare whatever it was away. I have dusted too, in the past, but I did not like using pesticides and the flowers seem to work.
    Someone at a green house told me the black zucchini are heirlooms and more resilient. I plant different types of zucchini in case a disease comes… not all will likely catch a disease if of different varieties…. My ideas came from internet sources from other people who said what worked for them… and the flowers have worked. See companion planting for more ideas/info. This looks like a good recipe. Thanks

  • Amanda

    Fantastic recipe! I made these a few weeks ago but made waaaaay too many. I froze them and re-baked them the other night ago and they were still delish! Great job!

  • I saw your recipe on Pinterest and quickly made a batch of these last night. I had to make a few substitutions with what I had on hand, but the results were still crispy and delicious! I actually posted them on my micro blog Sometimes Foodie with a link to your recipe.

    Not only have you inspired me to start growing my own zucchini, but your recipe is going in my normal rotation.

    Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe!

    • It is in heavy rotation here, too πŸ™‚ Glad you liked it!

  • Katja

    Sooo good!
    Love the idea. Simple but tasty

  • Nadja Croft

    These look really good! I was curious to your dipping sauce on the side??

  • robin

    Lorraine Pascale just ripped you off with these on her BBC show.

  • marilyn peters

    Our local bar serves these ~ total HIT and with Ranch Dressing too !!

  • pat

    Broken up egg shells also are a good source of calcium around your tomato plants, which are heavy feeders.

  • Leila Regala

    It looks delicious! Question, can I use egg replacer instead?

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