Do you have at least six mondo-zucchini sitting on your counter at all times during the summer?
I love to take all the extras and shred and dehydrate them. I add the dehydrated zucchini to various things all winter long- like soups, sprinkled on salads…and now, this granola. If you are looking for ways to preserve and use preserved zucchini, you’ll want to check out my full tutorial —> HERE!
If you’re looking for a way to use shredded dehydrated zucchini, this is it! I think it’s worth dehydrating zucchini just to make this granola.
And what a great way to eat your veggies. I really pack a lot of zucchini into this granola. No skimping here! I didn’t want it to be a backseat ingredient.
This batch of zucchini granola has the equivalent of around 8 cups of shredded fresh zucchini!
I make a lot of new recipes all the time. And of course I use Karl as my guinea pig. I make him try new things without telling him what they are. And then I make him tell me what he thinks they tastes like and what flavors he can pick out.
He thought it tasted like gingerbread, but I think it just has a buttery, sweet, vanilla, cinnamon-y fall-time baked bread taste. It tastes like nutty baked zucchini bread.
A word about dehydrating zucchini:
I think it is one the easiest vegetables to dehydrate. And when shredded, in my excalibur dehydrator it only takes several hours for a batch. You can also dehydrate zucchini in an oven.
Grain-Free Zucchini Bread Granola
4 Tbs good quality honey
3 Tbs melted butter (or coconut oil)
½ tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup sliced raw almonds
1 cup raw walnuts, chopped up into smaller pieces
1 cup raw pecans, chopped up smaller pieces
2 Tbs sesame seeds
2 cups dehydrated zucchini, packed
1 large egg white
1. Preheat the oven to 250° F and line a large baking pan with parchment paper. Alternately, you can lightly grease the pan.
2. In a bowl stir together the honey, melted butter, salt, vanilla, and cinnamon. Fold in the almonds, walnuts, pecans, sesame seeds and dehydrated zucchini.
I indicated to “pack” the zucchini while measuring it- just like you would brown sugar. Don’t super-cram it down, but do push it down in the cup to get a more accurate measurement. Also, make sure to break up the dehydrated zucchini if it is sticking together in large clumps or one big mass.
3. Whip the egg white, either with a stand mixer, or by hand with a whisk if you are also looking to build upper body endurance. Whip the egg white until very foamy and light (no need to take it all the way to stiff peaks). Fold the egg white into the granola mixture.
4. Pour the granola onto the pan and spread it out into a single-ish layer. Bake for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Allow to cool and then store in an airtight container.
Granola is a pretty forgiving thing. If you want to use different nuts, add flax seed, oats, or even brown rice cereal, I bet you can get away with it. Just keep the technique the same and make sure you have generally the same amount of ingredients and it should turn out.
If you do change the recipe and add a lot of grains in place of the nuts, you might have to add a tad more butter or honey to compensate for the dryness. It should feel a little bit sticky and all the components should be coated and not dry at all. It should loosely hold its shape if you pack it together. If it doesn’t do this, add more liquid (butter, honey, egg white).
Enjoy! And happy zucchini harvest!
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Great recipe and such healthy ingredients. Love all the nuts that are loaded with protein. Thanks for sharing on Real Food Fridays Blog hop.
Love, love, love this creative idea. Pinning to make this soon and sharing too. Looks delicious and i can’t wait to try it with the monster zucchini I have sitting on my counter!
Blessings,
Shari
(stopping in from real food fridays)
Love this granola! Thank you for sharing the recipe – wondering if grated sweet potatoes would work instead of zucchini? Would you dehydrate before using like the zucchini?
So glad to hear that, thanks!
Hmm… good question about the sweet potato. I wonder if it might be a little too hard when dehydrated (and yes, I think it would have to be dehydrated to work properly). You could try dehydrating a bit and if it is edible out of the dehydrator, I think it would work fine in the granola. You know what is similar and would work really well? Carrot! Kind of a carrot cake granola… mmmm. :)
Could you omit the egg in this recipe please?
You could try, though it is really what helps the ingredients all stick together… so it might be looser and less chunky, but it would still taste just as good. -Crystal