Dealing with those garden monsters

To dehydrate your zucchinis, grate them and squeeze out as much juice as you can. Photo: Hilary Rowley

It is the season of the annual zucchini tsunami, so I have found a seriously delicious way to use a whole shipload of these prolific beasts.

If you are unable to eat gluten or you are on a ketogenic diet (low carbohydrate), baking anything requires a flour with no wheat, and in the case of keto, no carbs.

Coconut flour is the usual go to, but I am always hunting out things to eat that I can grow myself. Unfortunately, it is still impossible to grow coconuts in New Zealand, but luckily the not-so-humble zucchini comes to the rescue.

There are a few stages in zucchini growing:

EXCITEMENT

Woohoo, I have the first tiny thumb-sized zucchini of the season. We barbecue them whole and eat them with gusto.

PLENTY

I’m still managing to pick zucchini while they are a smallish size. When I offer the excess to people they happily accept and take a few.

TOO MANY

They’re getting overwhelming. The vegetable crisper drawer in the fridge is always full. Offering them to friends results in a most emphatic "no".

MONSTERS IN THE GARDEN

They are doubling in size daily, there are too many to even pick, and nowhere to put them. No-one wants them and we are sick of eating the things.

At the "too many" and "monsters" stages it is time to make zucchini flour.

As we have solar panels the dehydrator is free to use in the daytime, so it is very efficient. If you don’t have solar panels, using the dehydrator on a timer during cheaper night rates might be an option.

Just grate zucchini, squeeze out as much juice as you can (I use my hands), and dehydrate. The resulting dry little chips can be ground into fine flour using a coffee/spice grinder.

You can replace coconut flour at a 1:1 ratio in recipes.