A little while back, I found these zucchini tots on Pinterest and thought to myself, “Dang if I don’t like me some zucchini. I bet these are the bee’s knees!” Or something along those lines anyway. Rayna got the idea from Kelsey at The Naptime Chef (here are her Zucchini Bites) and wow. Hers look good too.
I must be a bit of a pig, because my incarnation of them was twice as big as Kelsey’s and four times the size of Rayna’s batch. What can I say? I love Zucchini.
I also made mine grain/gluten-free. They’re Primal too, or Paleo plus cheese.
You can follow my step-by-step image instructions, or skip to the end for the recipe.
Step-By-Step Primal Baked Zucchini Rounds (Grain Free, Gluten Free)
Grate a bunch of zucchinis. I like to hold on to the stem end as a “handle.”
(Thanks to my sweet husband for taking a couple of pictures of me and Joseph cooking! Gotta love babywearing for cooking with the littles.)
That’s my new Kokadi stars wrap. I’m a total kokadi fan now… must get more kokadi!
Anyway, grate your zucchinis onto a kitchen towel. When you’re finished, spread them out evenly.
Fold over the edges, and…
place another folded towel on top. Then…
roll up the whole thing and SQUEEZE that sucker. Press on it, smash it, squeeze it. You’re trying to get out as much “juice” as you can so your rounds won’t be soggy.
This is pretty good!
Now add a diced onion. I really like them diced smaller than this, but my knife needs some sharpening, so I didn’t want to keep fighting with it. (Does anyone have a foolproof knife sharpener recommendation? I mean I AM A FOOL so need EASY.)
Grate some cheese and throw it in too. I used sharp cheddar.
Add your eggs…
…almond flour…
…and seasonings. I used garlic salt and cumin. I would have used MORE cumin but I ran out. Noted on the grocery list! You can use whatever seasonings you like though.
Use your cookie scoop to drop lumps onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. I’ve been using this reusable parchment lately and I LOVE it. It’s thin and flexible, not thick like the silicone sheets (and it’s way cheaper). I need to get more of these to cut to fit my loaf pan, cake pans, etc. Sorry for the tangent but I gotta share.
I patted them down a little bit with my fingers after taking this picture, to make them a bit flatter.
Bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes…
…then flip them over, and continue baking, around 5-7 more minutes to crisp the other side.
They’re piping hot and ready to eat!
They reminded me and my husband both of potato latkes, but… not potatoes, and baked in the oven, not fried. But zucchini. And with cheese. But still. Latke-esque. So I pulled out the sour cream as a condiment for them. Good good choice.
I’m sure you could make a fancier dip, but they didn’t need anything fancy. Little unassuming zucchini rounds, packed with flavor.
- cups About 4 of zucchini shredded, moisture squeezed out
- 1 diced yellow onion
- 1 cups to 1 1/2 of shredded cheddar cheese please grate it yourself
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup of almond flour/almond meal
- Seasonings to taste. I used garlic salt and cumin.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Combine all ingredients thoroughly.
- Use a cookie scoop to drop “lumps†onto parchment-lined cookie sheets, and pat gently with your fingertips to slightly flatten.
- Bake for 12 minutes, or until the bottom edges begin to brown, then flip over.
- Return to the oven for another 5-7 minutes, until browned on the other side.
- Enjoy plain, or serve with sour cream!
- Freeze in vacuum-sealed bags, and re-heat in the oven if you’d like.
These are great for:
These are great for:- A cookout side item (easy to eat without utensils!)
- A child’s lunch box (they’re good cold too)
- Breakfast (they reheat great… I had some this morning)
- Snacks between meals
- Party appetizers
- A dinner side (I think they’d be awesome with any sea food especially)
- I think you get the idea…
28 Comments
I like using a ricotta cheese mixed with pesto (homemade from the garden) as a dip. Yum.
Just made them, and the husband and I snarfed them down in record time (in my defense, I made a half batch). Thanks for sharing such a tasty idea!!!!
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These look delicious! I will probably make some tonight, but I’ll be cooking for one so I hope they do freeze well. This would be the perfect kind of thing to have in the freezer ready to heat up whenever!
If I were to freeze them and reheat in the oven, what temperature/time would you recommend?
These look AMAZING! Would be a wonderful appetizer or potluck dish for a party. Yum 🙂
I love your baby wrap, too!! Great colors/pattern. Also, the way it is wrapped reminds me of some of the Japanese clothes my Mom brought back from when she and my Dad lived in Misawa, on the island of Honshu. She showed me pictures of Japanese mamas wearing their babies in very much the same way.
I love that you said these reminded you of latkes, because that’s what I was thinking the entire time I was reading! I made fried latkes with zucchini and eggplant a couple nights ago (though I did throw in one potato for texture, plus I used cornstarch). I also used the grating attachment on my food processor because I’m lazy. I’ll have to try baking next time – so much healthier!
oh wow those sound great! Next time, I’m coming over to eat!
Will these freeze well? They look so tasty, but I can’t have zucchini right now (or sour cream for that matter).
I think so! I was going to freeze some to test it but we ate them… lol. I’ll have to make them again (a third time) specifically for freezing. I think they’d be great frozen and reheated in the oven, not microwave.
fixed these tonight…realllly good even my 8 yr old gr-son loved them…i squeezed them out really good, but they had alot of liquid coming out during cooking but it worked itself out:)
glad it worked out!
Have been following your grain-free adventures by e-mail for some time. This is the first time I’ve started drooling while reading. Love eggy-cheesy-veggie things. Thanks so much!
ooh i hope you had a burp cloth or napkin nearby! haha.Thanks for your comment!
For knife sharpening, you should look into Chef’s Choice sharpeners. My family has one and it means that they’ve kept their knives sharp and in shape for the 30 years they’ve had them. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003AECBZA/joyfabod-20/
Thank you! That looks easy enough (though the description of hair-splitting sharpness makes me think i might lose a finger or two!) and they have great reviews. i’ll add to my wish list and think about it for a bit, but probably end up getting one.
These sound good! Did you gobble them all down or did they hold up well as leftovers? Also I used your link to get some of that reusable parchement paper. For some reason when I use parchement paper it get smokey and yuck in my kitchen. Hopefully this helps. Also, less waste! Thanks Emily!
we had leftovers this time. 🙂 so good warmed up again, but i didn’t freeze them to test freezing this time because i still wanted to eat them. i’ll have to make another batch.
the reusable parchment is great. but smokey parchment? are you sure you haven’t been using wax paper accidentally? i’ve never had my parchment smoke!
I have totally been using wax paper. I’ve never seen parchment paper in the store so I figured it was the same thing. How sad.
This is pretty much the exact recipe I use to make broccoli “nuggets” for the kids (omit zucchini, add broccoli). They love them! Never thought to use zucchini. Will have to try it now that we’re getting so much summer squash with our CSA share!
oh that sounds good too. i LOVE broccoli.
Love the recipe! And great step by step instructions and pictures, thanks!
Do you happen to know what the reusable parchment paper is made of? I searched but didn’t come up with much except that it might be PTFE.
hmmmmmm I’m not sure! Let me know if you find out, and if I figure it out I’ll be sure to reply again to your comment.
mmmmm, I plan on making these tomorrow! Our farmers market is on Thurs mornings, so that is perfect timing to pick up some zucchini! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
YAY hope you like them! Be sure to visit the original 2 posts too and leave them some love <3.
Glad I saw them on pinterest so I could grain-free-ize them!
Forgot to come back and let you know I made these, they were great! Next time I think I need to squeeze out more moisture (I thought I had, but my batter was quite runny), and use sharp cheddar instead. Other than that, we all really enjoyed them!
Oh yeah. And I would take the advice of using parchment. Forgot on my first batch and they were not quite as crispy as the second batch where I remembered the parchment 🙂
Those look delicious and very easy to make. I will have to try them. Could I use whole wheat flour instead of almond flour? Also, I bet these would be great made with other veggies too. 🙂
The original recipes use breadcrumbs, not flour, so i’d go with that if I weren’t grain-free. I definitely agree… adding other veggies would be awesome.
Ok Thank you! I didn’t even think of bread crumbs!! 🙂