Summer Squash Cakes

Last summer, I made some zucchini cakes -- a vegan version of crab cakes, the way I remember them from my childhood when we would head to the shore every summer. I've been a vegetarian for sixteen years now, but still -- in the summer, I think about crab cakes.

When we got our first summer squash of the season from our CSA this week, I instantly knew that it was time for some vegan crab cakes. Technically, these are squash cakes and not zucchini cakes -- since they are made with a green summer squash that isn't zucchini -- but it is basically the same thing.

These cakes might not taste exactly like crab cakes, but they definitely serve the role -- flaky, moist, buttery, and extra-delicious. The kelp gives it that sea flavor -- with almost a fishiness to it -- while the Old Bay calls on a classic crab cake seasoning.

The only time-consuming part of this recipe is grating the squash, but I took care of that as soon as I woke up this morning -- so at dinner time, it was a simple matter of throwing everything together in a bowl and then pan-frying. This recipe easily scales up or down, depending on how much squash you have -- but my one small green squash yielded the cup and a half of grated squash called for in the recipe. This amount of squash produced four big squash cakes -- plus one small one for Zelda.

Zucchini or Summer Squash Cakes

• 1 1/2 c grated squash or zucchini, patted dry
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 1 c plain bread crumbs
• 1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning
• 1 tsp kelp granules (I use this, but really any kind of powdered/granulated seaweed works)
• 2 tbsp flour
• oil for pan frying

Mix together the squash, olive oil, bread crumbs, Old Bay, and kelp in a bowl. Form into patties, then dredge in the flour on both sides. Drizzle some oil into a pan and let it heat up over a medium-high flame. Once the oil is hot, pan fry about three to five minutes per side, until it turns a lovely golden brown.

Zucchini Bread Contest

Our CSA holds an annual zucchini bread (well, summer squash baked good) contest -- but I've always been afraid to enter. People always have preconceived notions about vegan baked goods, and I didn't really feel like dealing with it. But! This year, I put on my big girl pants and entered. I submitted two things -- chocolate summer squash bread and lemon zucchini muffins. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures. (Sorry!) Well, the results are in . . . and those lemon zucchini muffins were apparently a hit!

Here's what I won! A container of fresh raspberries and blackberries, and a tote bag with the name of our CSA on it. The berries were super delicious. Hooray for lemon zucchini muffins!

Zucchini Cakes

Earlier this week, I saw a recipe online for "crab" cakes made from zucchini rather than . . . y'know, crab. The recipe was vegetarian, but not vegan -- and I was lacking a couple of the key ingredients (like Old Bay seasoning). So I winged it a bit.

The results were delicious. Looking at the picture now, I am making myself hungry again. I can see why the recipe called them crab cakes, even though the taste isn't the same; the texture is very crab cake-like. I had already shredded the zucchini and summer squash the same night I made the Chocolate Summer Squash Bread, so there was hardly any prep work involved; the cakes made a fast and tasty meal before I went off to teach class.

After class, we picked up some Old Bay seasoning at the store; I'm going to definitely make these again once we get another batch of squash (which will undoubtedly be this week). I will try them with the Old Bay and then post a definitive recipe here. For now, the picture is all I have to offer.

(Update: finished recipe for vegan crab cakes now available!)

Chocolate Summer Squash Bread

With the exception of the pancakes we had last weekend, I haven't made any breakfasty foods so far. And I really like breakfast, so that needed to change. Last night, I made two loaves of chocolate summer squash bread -- one to leave with my dad and brother and one to bring home for me and P.

The idea for the bread came from here, but I made a fair number of changes to it. I would have made slightly different changes in my own kitchen, but I was at my dad's house so I had to work with what he had. My modifications left out the eggs, oil, and sugar -- and added a tsp of baking powder and a mashed up banana. I also used a 10 oz bag of grain-sweetened chocolate chips in place of all of the chocolate in the recipe. I was at first planning to use the same quantity of chocolate as the original called for, but that left only a few chips in the bag . . . so I tossed the rest in. I originally bought the grain-sweetened chocolate for a recipe I planned to make for Karen's memorial, from a macrobiotic dessert cookbook called Love, Eric. I ended up making my own recipe of ice cream instead, which meant I had this chocolate around to use up! I also added an extra cup of flour at the end, because the batter looked much too liquidy -- I'm not sure if I would do that again in the future, but the squash I used was very juicy.

We had slices of the chocolate bread for breakfast this morning -- actually, a few pieces disappeared even before this picture was taken! The bread was dense and fudgey; maybe without the extra flour it would've been a bit lighter. The density wasn't a bad thing though! The bread was sweet but not too sweet -- perfect for breakfast -- and definitely very chocolatey.

I will absolutely plan to make this bread again with more of the summer squash we get; the modifications will be a bit different at home though, since I won't have bananas but will have access to other potential egg substitutes.