I had to come up with a delicious zucchini recipe and here it is. I made a tasty sunflower seed crust for the zucchini and it is really delicious with roasted tomatillo salsa and cotija cheese. Add a few pickled red onions to jazz it up if you make them. Zucchini doesn’t have to be boring anymore.

Ingredients for around 6 servings

3 medium zucchini – ends removed, cut in half long ways

3 oz unsalted roasted sunflower seeds

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper

1 egg lightly beaten

fresh crushed sea salt to taste

fresh ground black pepper to taste

3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 1/2 lb tomatillos – husk removed, tomatillos washed well , quartered

6 jalapeños – stem and core and seeds removed – chopped

1 large onion – chopped

1/2 head garlic – leave the cloves in their skins…they get roasted that ways and pop out really easy after roasting

1/8 oz fresh epazote leaves – chopped

1 oz fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems – chopped

1/2 lime – just the fresh squeezed juice

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

optional 1-2 chiltepin – crushed or to taste – your salsa will taste even better if you use chiltepin I got mine locally (I forgot from either Bly Sky Farms or Crocked Sky Farms) or you have to mail for them.

1/4 cup white vinegar

Directions

Make the salsa first.

The tomatillos, jalapeños, garlic, and onions all go under broiler till charred. You might want to do them separately because they get done at different times. Pop out the garlic from the skins and throw out the garlic skins. Then when they are all charred up you blend the tomatillos, jalapeños, garlic, onion, epazote, cilantro, lime juice, sea salt (chiltepin if using) and vinegar together. This is delicious and you will love it. If it’s a little too thick you can thin it with a little water. Either set this to the side or refrigerate if you are using latter.

The zucchini get laid out on a baking sheet cut side up. Paint the cut side up with the beaten egg. Season to taste with fresh crushed sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

Set the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a spice grinder ground the sunflower seeds till they are chunky and a little powdery. The ground sunflower seeds go in a small mixing bowl. Add the remaining salt and white pepper to the ground sunflower seeds.

The ground sunflower seed mixture gets sprinkled over each cut wet side of the zucchini. You will have a good layer of sunflower seed over each zucchini half. Then they get drizzled with oil. Then they go in the 400 degree F preheated oven till the zucchini is soft and the sunflower mixture gets golden. Timing will differ but in my oven mine took 45 minutes.

You MUST serve with the roasted tomatillo salsa. Cojita cheese, pickled onions and a little sour cream would be really great too!

This is DELICIOUS!