Julia Child's Sautéed Shredded Zucchini. A simple, 10 minute side dish recipe that goes well with everything and tastes great!
Julia Child's genius runs the gamut from the most intricate recipes, like Boeuf Bourguignon or duck in pastry crust, to this simple two-ingredient toss in the pan. My oldest Julia Child cookbook The Way To Cook has a whole section devoted to shredded zucchini. I've tried a few of the recipes. They're all delicious of course - it's Julia.
But this shredded zucchini recipe is my favorite because it's so simple; it brings out the natural goodness of fresh zucchini; and it proves that you don't need to get complicated or fancy to make something great.
How to Make Julia Child's Sautéed Shredded Zucchini Recipe
Wash and trim the ends off of four medium zucchinis. Grate them using the shredding blade of your food processor or the large holes on a box grater.
Toss the zucchini with some salt and let it steep for a couple of minutes and then squeeze it with a clean dish towel to extract most of the excess liquid. This gives the dish a crisp-tender consistency. I've tried this recipe without salting and draining. It's still delicious but the consistency is softer and there's some liquid in the pan at the end. If you go that route I suggest using a slotted spoon for serving, so you leave the excess liquid behind.
When you make this recipe, you'll taste the most meltingly tender zucchini with its naturally sweet buttery flavor. It tastes like summer - fresh and delicious.
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Sautéed shredded zucchini is delicious with just a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Or add fresh herbs - mint or basil - and grate in some good quality parmesan cheese.
Sautéed shredded zucchini goes with everything - chicken, fish, steak... It's a great side dish any time of year, but it's especially good in the summer, when zucchini is in season.
Other Summery Recipes to Try:
Here's Julia Child's sautéed shredded zucchini recipe. If you make this I hope you'll come back to leave a star rating and a comment. I'd love to know what you think!
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Julia Child's Sautéed Shredded Zucchini Recipe
- Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: 4-5 1x
Description
A delicious, quick and easy zucchini side dish that goes with practically everything.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds zucchini, washed, ends trimmed (4 medium zucchinis)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil (or butter)
- ½ cup finely chopped shallot (2-3 shallots, depending on size)
- Kosher salt
- Fresh ground black pepper
- Optional Toppings:
- Freshly grated imported parmesan cheese (I recommend Parmigiana Reggiano)
- Fresh slivered basil leaves
- Fresh slivered mint leaves
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Instructions
- Grate the zucchini The quickest and easiest method is to use the grating attachment on your food processor. Or you can use the large holes in a box grater.
- Transfer the zucchini to colander. Toss with ½ teaspoon of salt. Leave for 2-3 minutes. Squeeze zucchini in a clean dish towel to draw out the excess liquid. You may have to do this in batches.
- Heat oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet until hot. Add shallots and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add zucchini. Cook, tossing often, for 3-5 minutes, until zucchini is just tender. Season with pepper. Serve hot.
- Stir in a tablespoon or two of fresh herbs, if you like.
- Top with a generous sprinkling of freshly grated parmesan, if you like.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Made this with a mix of thyme, mint, and basil for the herbs and used it as pizza topping over a thin layer of tomato sauce, some almond milk ricotta and with a sprinkle of pine nuts over the top. Sooo good!
The original recipe I found for this had more salt (1 tsp for every cup of grated zucchini) and heavy cream which was added at the end. I love this recipe and make it often - will try your way with less salt but definitely adding the heavy cream (don’t measure it, just add some at the end - probably 1/4 cup).As you can see from my email, I was born in 1939 and my husband in 1937 so I’ve been cooking for a lot of years - still cook for my daughter’s family a couple of nights a week - it’s not work when you love what you’re doing
Big fan, I’m in the olive oil camp. No cheese. Great with dill at the last minute, but then again, what isn’t?
Lovely recipe. I recall once seeing Julia use a potato ricer to squeeze out the excess water after salting it. It works for me. If you want extra richness without the parmesan flavor (if you were serving this beside a delicate seafood, say), a dash of cream or even half-and-half would not go unappreciated.
My husband who doesn't like courgettes thought the grated ones were very good.
So great to hear. You've gotta hand it to Julia Child - she knows how to make everything taste great!
This was a super delicious easy peasy recipe to make. Easy to follow directions too. . Leave it to Julia Child to come up with something so refreshing! I made it with one shallot, some home grown basil and extra Parmesan. My husband and I could hardly stop eating it! Thanks for taking this out of her cookbook!
I'd give it 5 stars because I lov d it, but the rest of my family was not impressed..
I love this Zucchini recipe ; it was so easy to make and extremely delicious!!!! Julia is a genius ????
I was looking for this recipe! I adore Julia Child and my Mémère used to make her zucchini recipe. So delightful.
I love zucchini! I never tasted ANYTHING like this shredded dish! So buttery (with no butter!) and SO easy! This is a KEEPER! Thank you for sharing Julia’s genius. Thank you for sharing Julia’s genius!
Thank you for recipe. My sons liked it (2 helpings) and they are definitely not zucchini fans. I used a regular onion as I didn't have any shallots.
Beautiful!! I am going to make this today and bring to a BBQ. Thank you!!!
Great Jen - I hope you enjoy!