Zucchini Roll Ups: Hail to the Zucchini Fairies

 

During these last dog days of summer the zucchini fairies are extra busy, sprinkling fairy dust over the squash patch.  Overnight, like magic, baseball bat sized zucchinis appear!  Our chickens help take the burden off (they especially like the seeds), but still, the squashes keep coming.  The following recipe is a good way to use some of them up.  The original recipe is long gone, but I've made them enough times to pretty much ignore measuring, and they always come out just fine.

Ingredients:

5 or so largish zucchinis, enough for about 6 cups grated

1 onion

2 or 3 cloves garlic (more if you're a garlic head)

Cheddar cheese - around two cups grated

A goodly amount of fresh or dried oregano

1/2 tsp. toasted and ground cumin seeds

Your favorite salsa

5 large size whole wheat tortillas

Olive oil

Grate the zucchini, (a food processor works good), put it in a bowl and sprinkle about 1 tsp. salt on it, massaging it in with your hands.  Let sit for awhile to draw out some of the moisture, otherwise the roll ups will be soggy.

Meanwhile, chop the onion and garlic and grate your cheese.

Squeeze as much liquid out of the squash as you can.  Save it for another recipe if you like.

Put some olive oil in a heavy skillet, saute the onion and garlic a few minutes, then add the zucchini, oregano and cumin and cook until the zucchini is tender.

Put it back in the bowl, minus any liquid left in the skillet (you can also use this in other recipes). Mix in the grated cheese.

Lightly oil a cookie sheet.  Put a generous amount of filling on a tortilla and roll it up, tucking one end in.  Repeat with the other tortillas.

Smother with salsa.

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes.

Let cool a bit and enjoy.