Crispy On The Outside, Soft On The Inside

I had a few zucchinis in the fridge and have been wanting to try to make some crispy zucchini fries.  These were so fun to eat.  Super crispy on the outside (probably thanks to the panko) and super smushy soft on the inside.  AND, Izzy, the 5yo who-used-to-eat-everything-and-now-doesn’t child, LOVED them.

“EW”, she said when they came out of the oven, “I am NOT eating that.  What is it?”

The rule at our house is you have to taste it.  If you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it, after all we should enjoy what we eat, mother nature worked hard to grow it and we take special care to make it, it should be yum to eat, right?

Well after the first one, there was the second one, third, fourth, fifth….she ate these before the raviolis.  We’ll be making these again, and the best part?  These are so easy a 5 year old could totally make them too.  It’s fun, all the dredging and rolling and sprinkling, it’s total tea party time.

Enjoy!

Crispy Yummy Zucchini Sticks

• 4 Medium Size Zucchinis
• 1 1/2 tablespoon flour
• a couple sprinkles of your fave seasoning, I used cajun spices, but Italian or anything you fancy would be nice.
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 cup of plain breadcrumbs
• Olive Oil (spray if you have it)

Preheat oven to 475F -500F depending on your crisp factor (I did 500F)

Prepare a cookie sheet, brush or spray with olive oil, set aside.

Cut the zucchinis lengthwise in quarters, then into 3rds or quarters again.

Mix the flour, seasoning and salt together in a bowl.

Whip the egg whites until they are really frothy, almost until they form soft peaks, almost, in another bowl.

Put the breadcrumbs in another bowl.

Dredge the zucchini sticks in the flour mixture, dip in the egg whites, dredge in the breadcrumbs.

Place on prepped cookie sheet. Repeat until finished. Spray or drizzle sticks with olive oil.

Put in oven for about 20 minutes, turning half way through.

My Notes:

I used cajun seasoning and they were good, I think cumin would be AWESOME, and of course, the old stand by – Italian seasoning.

I used panko, the Japanese breadcrumbs. LOVED them, super crispy.

We really liked the super crispy outside and super soft inside, we cooked them for probably 25 minutes until the breadcrumbs started to turn super dark brown.

I think you could totally make a batch and freeze them after they’ve been coated with the breadcrumbs.  I’m going to add this to my “What to do with all the zucchini” part of the year and freeze a bunch for later.