Parmesan Roasted Zucchini

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

This is a great single vegetable side dish. As much as I love using more than one vegetable, you absolutely can just stick to one. Zucchini, especially during spring and summer, is a solid choice to be the feature veggie.

Pantry seasonings do all the big flavor work. I open my spice drawer and season the zucchini with onion powder, garlic powder and red pepper flakes plus the usual salt and pepper. On its own zucchini is pretty plain, so it can be a blank canvas and take on all sorts of other ingredients.

This is a 9-ingredient recipe and most of those are dried spices. This recipe has simple a formula of zucchini + spices + Parmesan. That’s it. The only prep you have to do is slice the zucchini and grate the cheese.

Putting Zucchini to Use

Technically zucchini is a fruit, but we think of it as a vegetable. Zucchini is a type of summer squash that’s from the same family as yellow squash. One of the best things about zucchini is that it works on savory and sweet recipes:

• Roasting: Toss diced or sliced zucchini in olive oil, salt and pepper. Then spread it across a large baking sheet. At 425 degrees F, it will take about 30 minutes or so to roast and brown at the edges. You can also add crunch with panko breadcrumbs, which I do for this roasted summer squash recipe.
• Sautéing: You can sauté diced zucchini or spiralize it into low carb, quick cooking zucchini Cacio e pepe. It helps to salt it first to remove some of the moisture before you cook it in a skillet on the stove.
• Raw: You don’t even have to cook it. I make a zucchini ribbon salad with pine nuts, feta and a simple vinaigrette.
• Baking: When you bake with shredded zucchini, make sure to squeeze out as much water as you can to avoid a dense crumb. I make zucchini muffins with greek yogurt, chocolate chips that turn out light and fluffy.

The Ingredients

This is what you need:

• Zucchini should feel firm and have no soft spots. The skin should be smooth and medium to dark green. You can make this roasted vegetable side dish recipe with yellow squash or a combination of both.
• Dried seasonings: The recipe calls for a blend of onion powder, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, kosher salt and black pepper.
• Parmesan: Grated, this cheese melts right into the zucchini helping it brown and giving it nice flavor.
• Olive oil: For the best taste, use high quality extra virgin olive oil.
• Parsley: When the zucchini finishes roasting, I sprinkle it with fresh herbs. Parsley is always a good choice, but you can also use basil or chives.

How To Make Parmesan Roasted Zucchini

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F with a baking sheet inside. This is a simple trick to maximize browning as soon as the veggies hit the pan and to avoid soggy zucchini.

1. Make the spice mix. In a small bowl, stir the garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper with olive oil.

2. Toss the zucchini rounds in the spiced-oil in a large bowl making sure they are all coated.

3. Carefully arrange the zucchini slices on the hot pre-heated sheet pan. They should not be overlapping. Sprinkle the zucchini with Parmesan cheese.

4. Roast the zucchini until it’s golden brown and tender in the middle. This will take 30-35 minutes. The cheese will melt quickly. Garnish the roasted zucchini with chopped parsley. 

Leftovers & Storage

Roasted zucchini is best when you eat it warm. You can reheat them in a 350-degree F oven, but keep in mind that they will be softer than when you first roasted them. I also like eating leftover zucchini cold tossed in a salad. You can keep leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 3 to 4 days.