Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Grilled Zucchini Greek Salad


Here's another way to use all of that zucchini you Utah cooks are growing!

I love to grill in the summer because, as I mentioned before, I don't have to turn on my oven. Unfortunately, my grill is still in Utah, so when I make this salad (taken from one of my favorite recipe blogs - Kalyn's Kitchen) I have to just saute the zucchini. Instead of brushing the zucchini with the Italian dressing and olive oil, I saute the zucchini in it and then don't add much when I'm tossing the salad because the zucchini retain a lot of the oil. I couldn't ever find the Greek seasoning, so I just looked up what was in Greek seasoning and made my own little mix. I left out the beef bouillon and it was great. I'm sure you can find the real stuff... I didn't look that hard.


GRILLED ZUCCHINI GREEK SALAD(for each serving)

1 zucchini about 10 inches long
2 medium summer tomatoes, any type of salad tomato
1/4 cup Kalamara olives (pitted olives are nice in this)
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (or less)
olive oil, to brush on zucchini
1 tsp. Greek seasoning (Cavender's Greek seasoning)
1/4 cup Italian dressing (for brushing zucchini, leaving 2 T Italian dressing for salad)
fresh ground black pepper to taste
Turn on grill to heat. Cut tomatoes into large chunks and put in colander. Sprinkle with salt and let tomatoes drain while the zucchini cooks. Cut ends off zucchini and cut into quarters lengthwise. Cut away the white inside from each zucchini piece so you have the green skin with about 3/8 inch of white on it.Brush both sides of zucchini with olive oil and sprinkle white side with Greek Seasoning. Place white side down on medium hot grill and cook about 5 minutes, or until starting to brown and barely starting to soften. Turn zucchini over, brush with Italian dressing, and cook about 3 minutes more. Zucchini should still be slightly firm. Cut zucchini strips into pieces about 1 inch wide.Put zucchini and drained tomatoes in salad bowl. Pour 2 T salad dressing over (or less, you don't need much because the zucchini is already very flavorful). Top with Kalamata olives and crumbled feta.
Serve this with Erin's (or Schuyler's) bread and it sounds like a perfect summer dinner!

2 comments:

Steph W said...

Looks so good. Do you have any substitutions for the Kalamara olives? They are not my favorite.

Also, I've had beans on my mind and am hoping I can talk you into also posting your meal salad with beans you were telling me and Erin about.

Noah And Kai said...

I've been trying to think of something to substitute. I'm not sure. I've added red onions to it before and it was really good. Does that count?