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Squash isn’t setting? Eat the flowers

Recipe: Stuffed squash blossoms with mushrooms and blue cheese

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Zucchini blossoms are edible and delicious. (Photos: Debbie Arrington)

Do your zucchini have lots of flowers but no squash? Eat the blossoms.

Many of those squash flowers (especially the early ones) are male; they’ll never form fruit. But they are edible -- and delicious.

Squash blossoms can be chopped, sautéed and added to quesadillas, frittatas and omelets or used as filling in chilies. They can also be used in soups and raw in salads. Before cooking, remove the thin green sepals at the base of the flower; they tend to be chewy.

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Gently slit side of flower to open up petals before stuffing
For a great summer appetizer, stuff the blossoms, dip in beaten egg and flour, then fry. The stuffing can vary by what you have on hand; you can even use more blossoms, chopped and sautéed with onion and mixed with cheese.

This stuffing complements the squash blossom’s own delicate flavor and holds together while assembling and cooking. During frying, the cheese melts just enough inside the blossom. Yum!

Who needs zucchini when the blossoms taste this good?

This recipe makes 1 cup stuffing, enough to fill 24 blossoms. Scale the amount of stuffing to the number of blossoms you have to stuff.

Stuffed squash blossoms with mushrooms and blue cheese

Makes 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients:
24 squash blossoms

2 tablespoons butter

¼ cup onion, chopped

½ cup mushrooms, chopped

1/3 cup blue cheese

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

1/3 cup cracker crumbs (about 8 Ritz crackers)

2 eggs, beaten

Flour to coat

Extra virgin olive oil or other oil for frying

Instructions:
Trim squash blossoms. Cut off sepals and trim stems to about 1 inch long.

In a skillet over medium heat, melt butter. Saute onions and mushrooms until soft. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

In a bowl, mix together cheeses and cracker crumbs. Add onions and mushrooms; mix.

Gently slit open one side of each flower, spreading the petals apart. Tuck one heaping spoonful of stuffing inside each blossom. Wrap the petals around the stuffing, twisting the end slightly to close.

Once blossoms are stuffed, heat oil (about ¼ inch deep) in a large heavy skillet. Gently roll each stuffed blossom in beaten egg, then roll in flour. Fry in skillet until brown, about 3 minutes each side.

Remove from oil with a slotted spoon or spatula and set aside, keeping warm.

Serve immediately with ranch dressing or other dipping sauce, if desired.

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Fried and stuffed squash blossoms make a great summer appetizer.




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RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3

November still offers good weather for fall planting:

* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.

* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.

* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.

* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.

* Plant garlic and onions.

* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.

* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.

* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.

* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.

* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.

* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.

* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.

* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.

* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.

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