10 Great Zucchini Recipes To Make With Your Summer Bounty

There's one vegetable — excuse us, fruit — that always seems to win the popularity contest during summer. Mild-tasting and approachable, zucchini is often a top pick when scanning the stands at a local farmers' market, and people feel the need to stockpile it every time they leave the house and head to the store.

Click here to see 10 Great Zucchini Recipes to Make with Your Summer Bounty (Slideshow)

Despite how it tastes, though, and how easy it is to use it, there always seems to be a surplus of zucchini lying around come August. Oftentimes we get so excited about seasonal zucchini come summer, that we buy a little more than we know what to do with, and are forced to let perfectly delicious and ripe zucchini rot and be thrown away.

While running out of uses for zucchini can happen, it doesn't mean we like zucchini any less. The zucchini's popularity spans the globe internationally, as it's a staple of France's classic dish, ratatouille, and a favorite of the Italians in their stuffed zucchini blossoms. It's also a great source of nutrition, as it's loaded with folate, potassium, and vitamin A. The best part about zucchini, though, is that it's versatile, and whether steamed, grilled, sautéed, or mashed, it'll always taste great with what you're serving that night.

Sometimes, all it takes is a little inspiration to put that zucchini to good use, and we're here to provide it with 10 easy and unique zucchini recipes for you to put your bounty to good use. These recipes prove that a zucchini's uses go far beyond the bread and pasta, and it can be added to just about any meal you're craving. Easy skillet lasagna made with arugula and fontina is great to make at the start of the week to keep on hand whenever you're in need of a meal, and fish recipes, like a cornmeal-crusted catfish and halibut with tahini sauce, demonstrate that zucchini are far from boring. It's time to stop regretting those overzealous purchases of zucchini and make them well worth it — just take a look at these recipes and  get started. 

Anne Dolce is the Cook editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @anniecdolce