Zucchini Butter

Looking for an unusual way to use up mounds of zucchini and summer squash? Zucchini butter is a flexible condiment that you can spread onto sandwiches, dollop onto an omelette or mix with sour cream to make a dip.

In Vermont, we like to joke that from July through September, you need to be extra sure to lock your car doors. Why? Because you don’t want your neighbors to get rid of their extra zucchini by sneaking it into your vehicle.

When squash is abundant—whether in the garden, at the farmers market or in your car—this zucchini butter recipe is a great way to use it. The zukes are shredded and cooked down with garlic, shallots, lemon and olive oil to make a flavorful spread that’s perfect as a topping on savory toasts, as an addition to egg recipes or even for eating by the spoonful.

This recipe isn’t suitable for water bath canning because it’s not acidic enough. However, it will last for up to a week in the fridge and can be frozen for longer storage—perfect for when you need to use up that bumper crop!

Ingredients for Zucchini Butter

• Olive oil: Use one of the best olive oil brands you can find, and make sure the oil is extra virgin. Since this recipe has just a few ingredients, each one needs to shine.
• Zucchini: Medium-sized zucchini are always a great choice, as they have a lovely texture and good flavor. You can use larger squash, too, provided they’re not woody. In this recipe—and in many other zucchini recipes—various colors and shapes of summer squash and zucchini can be used interchangeably.
• Salt: I tested this recipe with coarse salt. If you’re using fine salt, decrease the amount to 3/4 teaspoon, and season to taste at the end (which is always a good idea).
• Black pepper: My grinder is stocked with fragrant black Tellicherry peppercorns, so that’s what I used in this condiment recipe.
• Shallot: Onion and garlic’s more delicate cousin, shallot lends a zingy sweetness to any dish. If you can’t find a shallot, you could use extra garlic or some white or yellow onion.
• Lemon: Washing and zesting lemons prior to squeezing them is a great trick. Lemon zest isn’t sour, but it does contain a citrus-y lemon oil that’s wonderful in baked goods and savory dishes alike. I use a lemon reamer for this task, but if you don’t have one, here’s a tip on how to juice lemons without cutting them.
• Garlic: Two large garlic cloves will add lots of flavor, but if you can’t find a shallot, go ahead and use extra garlic. Or, just use extra because you want to! If you don’t like mincing garlic, you can grate it on a Microplane instead.

Directions

Step 1: Cook the zucchini

Sarah Tramonte for Taste of Home

Add the olive oil to a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Scoop in the shredded zucchini, salt, pepper and minced shallot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the zucchini has softened, 20 to 25 minutes.

Editor’s Tip: You’ll know the zucchini is done cooking when it starts to lose its bright green color and begins to cling to the bottom of the pan when you stir it.

Step 2: Add the remaining ingredients

Sarah Tramonte for Taste of Home

Add the lemon zest, lemon juice and minced garlic, and cook, stirring continuously, for two to three more minutes or until the liquid has absorbed. Remove from the heat.

Use immediately or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for later use.

Editor’s Tip: After taking the mixture off the heat, feel free to re-season it to taste with salt and pepper.

Sarah Tramonte for Taste of Home

Zucchini Butter Variations

• Use a different acid: Lemon is light and lovely, but other acidic ingredients work just as well in this recipe. You could use lime juice, white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar, or even get fancy and use balsamic. Don’t use distilled white vinegar, though. It has a harsher flavor that will stomp on the delicate vegetable that is zucchini.
• Give the spread some heat: If you like spice, sprinkle in some chili flakes or cayenne pepper. If you want a smoky flavor, you could try smoked paprika, ancho or chipotle powder. Adding hot sauce at the end would work too. Minced fresh jalapeno is another good choice, especially if you make the zucchini butter with lime juice.
• Add herbs: Basil would be wonderful in zucchini butter, but because it’s a delicate fresh herb, it should be added near the end along with the garlic and lemon. Oregano, thyme or mint—or a combination of all three—would also be great and can be added earlier on.
• Make it sweet: If you’ve ever eaten zucchini nut bread, chocolate zucchini cake or zucchini carrot cake, you know that the squash is a legitimate dessert ingredient. To make sweet zucchini butter, nix the shallot, garlic and black pepper. Instead, season the zucchini butter with cinnamon and nutmeg at the beginning of cooking, and add honey or maple syrup at the same time as the lemon juice. For this iteration, you can use butter instead of olive oil.

How to Store Zucchini Butter

Out of habit, I sterilize the jars that I’m going to use for zucchini butter by filling them with boiling water and then dumping out the water just before I want to scoop in the butter. Add the zucchini mixture while it’s still hot, let it cool on the counter for a few minutes and then pop the jars into the fridge.

How long does zucchini butter last?

You can keep zucchini butter for up to a week in the fridge, provided you sterilized your jars before filling them. If you don’t sterilize the jars, keep the butter for the typical four days. Want to it to last longer? Let the zucchini butter cool completely and pack it into zip-top freezer bags. Squish out the air and freeze, then use the zucchini butter within six months.

Zucchini Butter Tips

Sarah Tramonte for Taste of Home

Do you need to peel zucchini for zucchini butter?

Nope! The skin of the zucchini holds much of the nutritional value, so leaving the peel on is a great idea. (In general, you pretty much never have to peel zucchini.) Unless a zucchini is overripe, the skin is so tender that you won’t even know it’s there.

How do you use zucchini butter?

I love to slather zucchini butter on savory toast or a sandwich, especially one that also includes ricotta, sugar snap peas and mint. When I’m making an omelet or a frittata, I’ll add a few dollops of zucchini butter. Imagine a ham, cheddar and roasted red pepper omelet with the addition of this lemon-garlic and vegetable spread—it’s pretty great!

If you toss zucchini butter with hot pasta, Parmesan and a sprinkling of the starchy pasta water, it makes an instant sauce. You could also mix it 50-50 with some classic pesto, and spread the result on pizza dough.

Test Kitchen Approved

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