Tasty, cheesy zucchini cakes served with your favorite tomato sauce. So healthy and delicious, your kids won’t even know they’re eating vegetables!
Fish cakes, crab cakes, cupcakes, and now zucchini cakes! I’ve had a week of eating things that end with the word cake and so far, these zucchini cakes have taken.. well.. the cake! Meaty, nutty and savory, I served them topped with leftover puttanesca sauce from a previous pasta dinner. I’m big on reusing leftovers since I hate seeing good food go to waste!
We weren’t very hungry the night I made these so I served them as a main following a big bowl of carrot ginger soup. But you can make the cakes smaller and serve them as appetizers or even hors d’oeuvres, with a side of tomato sauce as a dip.
The flavors are so classic (it’s almost like eggplant parm!) you can rest assure it will be a slam dunk with everyone biting into these moist cakes. Kids included!
The zucchini gets very watery once grated, so make sure to squeeze out a good amount of it by using paper towel. I must’ve repeated that step 6-7 times before adding the other ingredients! You’ll also want to squeeze out liquid as you’re making your cakes so they can cook nicely and keep their shapes.
Tomato sauce is optional since the cakes are very tasty on their own, but I personally like it for extra zing, color and character. These zucchini cakes will keep in the fridge for a couple days (separately from the sauce, to avoid sogginess.)
Mangiamo!
Did you like this recipe? Are there changes you made that you would like to share? Share your tips and recommendations in the comments section below!
Zucchini Cakes
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 8 cakes 1x
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: Pan frying
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
Tasty, cheesy zucchini cakes served with your favorite tomato sauce. Everyone will love them!
Ingredients
- 3 large zucchini, grated or sliced into sticks
- 1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper
Sauce
- Your favorite tomato sauce. I used puttanesca for this recipe.
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, squeeze out the excess water from grated zucchini by using paper towel or a cheese cloth. Repeat this step a few times until paper towel doesn’t easily soak anymore.
- Add the parmesan, breadcrumbs, egg, a little salt and pepper, and stir well with a spoon.
- Make your zucchini cakes by squeezing out excess liquid until the mixture can be shaped.
- In a large pan over medium/high heat, add olive oil. When the oil is hot, add cakes (you may need to this in batches) and cook until dark brown on both sides (about 5 minutes each side).
- Drain the cakes on paper towel and serve with your favorite tomato sauce.
Notes
This recipe makes about 8 medium size cakes.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cake
- Calories: 112
- Sugar: 0.3g
- Sodium: 498.4mg
- Fat: 10.5g
- Saturated Fat: 3g
- Unsaturated Fat: 1g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 3g
- Fiber: 0.2g
- Protein: 5.2g
- Cholesterol: 30.5mh
Love this recipe. A wonderful appetizer to have. The marinara is a perfect compliment. I had some issue with using lots of paper towels to soak up the excess water (I was running out!). On a second try, I used a cheese cloth and wrung the water out, which worked really well.
I’ve never used a cheese cloth, what a great idea and so much better for the environment. I’ll add it as an option, thank you Marivic!
I am going to make these…I know that I’ll like them…that said, is the calorie count correct? That would be my only issue…
Hi Virginia, since I’ve switched recipe plugins it seems some of my recipes have fallen victim to the nutritional counter! I’ve updated it, much better calorie count 🙂 – enjoy!
You go a perfect char on them 🙂 they look delish!
oh my…YUM! These look perfectly wonderful! I can’t wait to share with my veggie friends too! PS: that last photo looks amazing! Following your blog now!
They are amazing and fun to eat! Thanks!