Zucchini salad with yogurt is a favorite sumer time cold delicacy. It is served as a side dish at afternoon tea gatherings along with any kind of pogacas or filo dough pastries, or as a meze/appetizer at dinner. It is quite easy and quick to make and truly delicious. Even those who do not like zucchini enjoy this salad. In Turkish cuisine to have a zucchini dish without fresh dill or mint is unheard-of. For this salad it's common to use both fresh mint and dill. If you do not like one of them you can leave that one out, but only one. Zucchini salad has to have at least one fresh herb.
serves 3
3 medium size zucchini, coarsely grated (makes approximately 3 cups)
2/3 cup thick plain yogurt
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
1-2 cloves of minced garlic, depending on how much you like garlic
1/2 cup crushed walnuts
1/8 cup or as much as you want fresh dill, finely chopped
1 tsp mint flakes or 1 tbsp fresh mint, finely chopped
salt and black pepper
optional
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
-Grate zucchinis in a bowl. Squeeze grated zucchini by hand and drain excessive juice.
-Heat olive oil in a pan. Add zucchini and cook for 5-6 minutes or until tender stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool down.
-Mix yogurt and minced garlic well in a bowl.
-When zucchini cools down, add zucchini, walnuts, dill, mint, salt, and pepper to the garlicy yogurt and mix well.
-Serve cold.
This recipe is for Weekend Herb Blogging that was founded by Kalyn and is hosted this weekend by Simona from Briciole.