Roasted Zucchini and Yellow Squash with Parm and Garlic

A fast-to-fix, colorful, and flavorful side dish, this recipe combines bright green zucchini and sunny yellow summer squash roasted with garlic and topped with parmesan cheese.

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Sometimes all I can think about are the sides to a meal, and sometimes the sides are an afterthought. In the summertime, when the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share box brings copious amounts of fresh produce into my house on a weekly basis, the sides are the Main Event. Sure, I throw in a protein here and there--but my goal is to incorporate as many farm share vegetables into our meals (and get them out of my crisper) as possible.

I'm not trying to use All The Vegetables for health reasons, it's really more of a decluttering issue, but the end result is that we eat more plant-based foods and that's always a Good Thing. Remember the movie Bull Durham? If you build it, they will come. I'm finding with my kids that if I serve it, they (eventually) will eat it. The more I prepare vegetable side dishes, the more vegetables end up on my kids' plates, and the more my family eats vegetables. The key is to actually prepare the side dishes, not just think that I ought to make a side dish.

Since my day job is a prep cook, I'm pretty efficient at chopping up a mess of vegetables. I find myself starting the prep work without knowing where the dish is going. Often with the abundant summer zucchini, my prep steps involve shredding and freezing bags of squash for Zucchini Pancakes or Zucchini and Refried Bean Enchiladas. Other times I'll grill a mess of squash--for Grilled Zucchini with Feta, or to use on a Grilled Vegetable Ciabatta Pizza. It's rare that I roast zucchini, primarily because I live in an old house and if I'm using my oven, my bedroom gets pretty darn uncomfortable for sleeping. But that shouldn't deter me from providing more options to my readers, so today I'm sharing a roasted vegetable side dish recipe.

For more recipes using summer squash, please see my Summer Squash Recipes Collection. Since I want my readers to be able to find recipes easily, if you've got yellow squash you can also search my Yellow Squash Recipes Collection, and if you've got zucchini you can search the Zucchini Recipes Collection. These collections are part of the Visual Recipe Index by Ingredient, a resource for folks like me eating from the farm share, the farmer's market, the garden, the neighbor's garden, and great deals on ugly produce at the grocery store.

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Roasted Zucchini and Yellow Squash
By Kirsten Madaus

A fast-to-fix, colorful, and flavorful side dish, this recipe combines bright green zucchini and sunny yellow summer squash roasted with garlic and topped with parmesan cheese.

Prep time: 00:05
Cook time: 00:25
Total time: 00:30

Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
2 to 3 cups chopped zucchini in bite sized pieces
2 to 3 cups chopped yellow squash in bite sized pieces
1 Tablespoon cooking oil (olive, vegetable, your choice)
a generous pinch of salt (I use kosher)
several grinds of pepper
2 or 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
½ cup shredded parmesan cheese

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Get a rimmed baking sheet (½ or ¾ sheet pan works fine).

For easiest clean up, line the rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

This recipe uses about 1 medium zucchini and 1 medium yellow squash. In a large bowl, toss the chopped vegetables with oil.

Sprinkle salt and pepper over vegetables, and toss again.

Spread the seasoned vegetables in the prepared pan.

Roast in a preheated oven for 15 minutes.

Stir the vegetables, and sprinkle the garlic on top. Return to oven for another 5 minutes.

Stir the vegetables, sprinkle the cheese on top, and return to oven for another 5 minutes until squash is lightly browned and cheese is melted.