This is Not Even a Recipe: Zucchini Saute

Ah, zucchini.  I just love dark greens, zucchini, and bell peppers (especially red ones).  But, I'm trying not to get in a rut, so instead of doing peppers and chard last night, after a long busy day and on my own for dinner prep, I went with zucchini.

I broke out my trusty big cast iron pan, worth every penny even if you don't take into account that I got it for free from a family friend.  I love this pan!  More on the pan in another post (and how to cook with and season a cast iron pan).  The pan came to me with some rust and wear and a weird layer of not-cool grease.  But now it is a trusty mainstay of my kitchen (and can be used as a weapon if need be, too) (you know, like in cartoons? when the pan would turn into the shape of the hapless person who got hit?).

Okay, I digress.

I can't really say this is a recipe, but I can definitely say that this proves you can put something yummy on the table with little to no skills, no recipe, no time, and only a couple ingredients.  I am not even going to list out the things I used.  Just read on.

I had about a pound of green zucchini from Trader Joe's.  I chopped off either end, then cut them lengthwise into quarters, then sliced that into coins.  In other words, 1/4 of coins, like little triangles.  You can cut it up however you want, but I wanted to save cooking time by taking some time on the front end with prep.  You could also grate it, but I wanted a little bit of "meat" to my zucchini.

I added some olive oil to my cast iron and when it shimmered, I dumped in the zucchini as I cut them up.

I usually add onions first, but in this case I really wanted to cook the heck out of my zucchini.  So, once I had the zucchini all in, I grabbed one medium-sized onion (about 4-5 inches in diameter), peeled it, and diced it up.  For a good method on how to mince or dice an onion, YouTube it.  Once you get some practice in, it's easy peasy.  Just remember to have a sharp knife.

Add the onions to the zucchini and stir around.  Things should be shiny and start looking a little translucent.  Then add seasonings.  Go with whatever moves you.  But definitely include salt and fresh-ground pepper in this.  After adding salt and pepper, I added some thyme, turmeric (love the color and it's so good for you, and also super TRENDY now), and garlic powder.  I might note a lesson I learned here:  I treated us to truffle salt, but that really is a finishing salt as the truffle flavor was more or less absent from the final dish.

Stir and stir and scrape until it is a doneness you like.  I wanted this to be almost like zucchini butter.  Yes, google that and you can find something really fantastic to put onto your toast if you have gotten tired of avocado toast (come on, even though it's overdone and trendy, avocado toast is delicious). 

Once my zucchini was about a third in volume of what I started out with, I tasted a bit to check for seasoning.  You can serve as is, as a side, or in my case, I mixed some pre-made ravioli from Trader Joe's into it, along with some French butter.  Magnifique!