Recipe: Zucchini Fries

Who doesn't like cheese fries? Well they're bad for you, so it's best to avoid them. Alternatively, you may consider substituting zucchini. Yes, this is a certifiable cheat that I saw on Dr. Oz. 

Ingredients

Zucchini

Eggs

Finely grated parmesan

Spelt bread crumbs

General Method

• Cut zucchini into strips and blot dry
• Whisk egg and set aside
• Combine parmesan and bread crumbs 
• Dip zucchini in egg and quickly roll in cheese-crumb mixture
• Place strips onto a grease cookie sheet 
• Bake 10 mins at 425F; flip strips and bake for another 10 mins until crisp (not burnt)

Adapted from Dr.Oz

Comments:

• I forgot to blot the zucchini at first, so the egg wasn't sticking to it very well; this caused some of the crumb-mix to fall off rather quickly. Lesson learned.
• The egg mixture made the crumb-mix clumpy and quite difficult to work with towards the end of the process. I suggest dividing the parmesan-breadcrumb mixture into 2 portions to avoid having to use a lumpy mixture at the end. I simply added breadcrumbs to the mixture to dry up some of the egg batter.

Overall Recommendation:

• Generally good tasting, with a fun crunchy texture
• The baked zucchini doesn't keep well, so try to eat the whole batch at once. Use 1 zucchini instead of 2 for a more reasonable batch size.
• I liked this recipe, but not sure if I'd make it again in a hurry...it's a lot of work for a cheat, but distracting, time consuming activities may be part of the solution when avoiding a craving!