Surprisingly delicious, quick Zucchini, Corn and Tomato Sauté with feta cheese uses the best ingredients of summer for a true garden-to-table recipe. Head over to the Quick Healthy Recipes page for more ideas!
This recipe for zucchini, corn and tomato sauté is a part of this week’s Tuesdays In The Garden, with a theme of Summer Garden-to-Table Recipes. At the end of this guide, you’ll find links to recipes using more zucchini (can you have too many?), peppers, and rhubarb. Enjoy!
How do you feel about zucchini? Sure it’s the butt of many summer gardening jokes (“Don’t leave your car window rolled down in July and August, or you may find your seat full of huge zucchinis” and the classic bag of zucchinis left on your doorstep in the dark of night…), but we all grow it for a reason, right? It’s a pretty good for you – and let’s face it, easy to grow – vegetable.
More than that, though, zucchini is versatile. Since it doesn’t have a strong flavor, it can be used in everything from pancake-like fritters, to muffins, cookies, and cakes. Oh and let’s not forget classic zucchini bread. I’m not sure it would be summer without a loaf (or ten) of my no-fail zucchini bread (made healthier with whole wheat and less sugar).
Ah, but here’s where we get to the heart of this vegetable and the many people (like me…) who don’t like eating it as, well…a vegetable. Sure, in things it’s great – but on it’s own? Um, can you say “mush?”
There are only a few ways I like cooked zucchini and the one thing they all have in common is the zucchini stays mostly crisp. This is important, otherwise I’m transported back to my childhood where the vegetables on my plate were often mushy. I just can’t get past the texture issue and any recipe that calls for more than 5 minutes of cooking the zucchini falls into the “mushy” category for me (sorry to all those zucchini casseroles…).
Zucchini Corn and Tomato Sauté with Feta
When I found this recipe for a zucchini corn and tomato sauté in an old Women’s Day magazine I knew right away it had the potential to become a way to actually eat zucchini as a vegetable because of two things:
- it’s a quick-cooking recipe
- there’s a trick included to keep the zucchini crisp
Oh, and it didn’t hurt that it was full of other height of the summer garden vegetables – corn, tomatoes, onions, and garlic. I decided to amp up the flavor by adding feta cheese and let me tell you, it did it’s job.
The trick the recipe uses, besides fast cooking, is to salt the diced zucchini and let it drain in a colander for about 15 minutes before cooking.
If you wonder, like I did, if this really makes a difference and if it’s worth the extra step, I’m sharing the amount of liquid pulled out of the zucchini pictured for this recipe. That’s quite a bit, right?
Even though after the first few times making this I could see the liquid and knew it pulled out quite a bit, one time I was in a hurry and decided to skip this step. It was definitely not as good. There was a lot more liquid and the zucchini was sliding into mushy territory. I learned that I will always make time for this this step.
But to ensure crisp zucchini even more, here’s another step you can do:
Slice out the seedy centers of the zucchini. I always, always do this for the big, overgrown zucchini, but I also do it for smaller zucchini in recipes like this. It’s just an easy extra step towards crisp, cooked zucchini.
Here’s how to keep this zucchini corn and tomato sauté recipe quick, even with the draining step: start the zucchini draining and then use that time to prep your other vegetables. This way the total recipe takes just 20-25 minutes.
The tomatoes and half the feta are simply folded in after removing the pan from the stove, so the tomatoes keep their shape and the feta barely starts to melt. Then top the dish with the remaining feta before serving.
I have to say that even though I had high hopes for this recipe, it was still a completely delicious surprise to me the first time I made it. I had finally found a way to eat cooked zucchini that I liked!
Plus, we found that it’s just as good cold as it is warm, making it a summer salad option, too, as well as a great potluck dish.
There are so many great flavors in this zucchini corn sauté that all work well together and the stay-crisp techniques and quick-cooking make it even better. It’s a super easy way to use your summer vegetables up – I think you will be just as pleasantly surprised as I was!
Zucchini, Corn, and Tomato Sauté Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 to 4 small zucchini diced*
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 medium onion
- 1 clove garlic about 1 teaspoon minced
- 3 cups corn sliced off the cob, or frozen
- 2 tomatoes**
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ cup feta cheese
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- salt to taste***
Instructions
- Place zucchini* in a colander set over a bowl and sprinkle with 2 tsp. salt. Toss and let stand about 15 minutes to draw out excess liquid.
- Prep ingredients while zucchini is draining: dice onions, mince garlic, and chop tomatoes.** Slice corn off of cobs if needed.
- Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion and garlic. Sauté about 3 minutes until soft.
- Add zucchini and corn; sauté another 3 minutes until just crisp-tender. Remove from heat.
- Add diced tomato, 1/2 of the crumbled feta and stir into vegetables to heat through.
- Season to taste (be careful, the feta will add saltiness) .
- Spoon into a serving bowl and top with remaining cheese.
Notes
Nutrition
Other zucchini recipes you may like:
Sausage and Corn Stuffed Zucchini
Zucchini Cinnamon Freezer Muffins
Whole Wheat Dark Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes
Zucchini Lemon Bread
Here are more summer garden-to-table recipes from my Tuesdays in The Garden friends:
Zucchini and Beef Skillet Dinner at Simplify Live Love
Simple Zucchini Gratin at Hearth and Vine
Roasted Red Pepper Parmesan at Homemade Food Junkie
Rhubarb Crumble Coffee Cake at Frugal Family Home
Note: This recipe was originally published in 2009 and has been updated with all new photos, new formatting, and printable recipe. Enjoy!
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Shelly says
Salting and draining the zucchini is such a smart idea. I do this step with cucumbers for a cucumber salad I make too. I don’t know why I’ve never thought of doing this with zucchini too. Maybe my hubby would even eat the zucchini in this recipe. He doesn’t care for zucchini or any kind of squash at all.
Jami says
This might be the recipe for him, Shelly! Though I do have to admit it hasn’t won my kids over yet. 🙂
Diane Williams says
An excellent summer Harvest recipe! I use the salting tip too for getting all that extra liquid out of zucchini. Works every time! Can’t ever have too many recipes for this ole garden pal. Thanks for sharing!
Patti says
Hi Jami,
This looks delicious. In fact, I have all of these ingredients in my home right now and this recipe will be perfect for the salmon I plan on serving for dinner. It’s always great to have a new easy and tasty side because sometimes it’s a real chore trying to figure out what’s for dinner. Anyway, you can never have too many zucchini recipe. 🙂
Jami says
I hope you enjoyed this with Salmon – I think that sounds like a great serving suggestion!
Ginny R. says
I always wilt my sliced cucumbers (salt) before adding sliced sweet onion and dressing of buttermilk, sour cream or vinegar. Yummy. Will make your recipe tonight.