Zucchini pizza bites

"Zucchini? Yes, please. Zucchini pizza bites? Marry me!"

That's my stream of thought when I saw this recipe on The Comfort of Cooking. As I've mentioned in a previous post, zucchinis are currently my ulitmate favourite vegetable so I'm always on the lookout for recipes using these delectable moss-coloured squashes. I must have stared at the computer screen for a full minute after I stumbled upon this recipe.

I have to be honest, though, and tell you that the recipe had me at "zucchini". I didn't realize what a bonus the rest of the ingredients were until I assembled each "bite". The fun part of this recipe was that I got to play around with toppings. This made preparing and eating these little bites so much fun!

 The recipe only takes about fifteen minutes so this is definitely going into my bank of quick bites. I decided to jazz things up a bit with a few extra toppings but you can definitely make these with just the sauce, cheese and herbs.

A few extra tips for beginners:
1. Be sure to cut the zucchini slices no less than 1/4" in thickness and to grill them on medium high heat just enough to brown, NOT to cook through. This is important to ensure the zucchini slices will be firm enough to hold their toppings and keep some of their crunch.
2. If you're using relatively small zucchinis, as I was, cut them diagonally to get more surface area for your toppings.
3. Finely shred your cheese. If you're using pre-shredded ones, chop them up well. Long or thick strips of cheese might not fit well on the slices.
4. I used some left-over spaghetti sauce, but any marinara or pizza sauce should do the trick.
5. Feel free to substitute the vegetable toppings, cheese and and herbs to something of your liking.

How fabulous do these look?

Get the step-by-step guide and recipe after the jump.

Battered green beans

We're healthy-snacking today, folks!

I'm a big fan of vege snacks, and I'm not talking about those orange, green and yellow corn puffs that are colour-coded to remind us of real veges but are actually loaded with MSG. I'm talking about fresh veges turned into bite-sized morsels packed with flavour. I think a good way to get into healthy snacking is to keep a bank of easy recipes that you can whip up in a jiffy. These Battered Green Beans recipe is one of them - all it takes are five main ingredients and about 15 minutes of your time. Deep-frying can take some skill but, trust me, these beans are worth it.

First, grab a bunch of fresh green beans and strike a mean pose for the camera.

Next, trim the ends of the beans and blanch them in boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Do NOT over-blanch them or you'll have icky-textured beans.

Immediately drop the beans in icy water to stop the cooking process.

 

Drain thoroughly and pat dry. Patting them dry is optional, but it saves you time waiting for the beans to drain completely.

Dredge in flour.

Dip in egg-and-Parmesan batter seasoned with salt and pepper. I used Romano cheese because I couldn't find any halal Parmesan.

Fry in batches on medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes or until evenly golden-brown and legitimately mouth-watering.

Drain on paper towels and season with salt to taste. Serve hot - the crisp factor goes down the cooler the beans get.

Enjoy!

P/S: I eyeballed all my measurements so if you'd like the full recipe, head on over to Laura in the Kitchen!

Notes on deep-frying:

1. It's important to fry the beans in batches so that the oil's temperature doesn't drop too much and too suddenly.  If this happens, the beans will take longer to brown and absorb more oil, giving you soggy battered beans. Ick.

2. Don't be afraid to keep the heat sufficiently high - we're working with only a thin layer of batter and the beans are already cooked through. When the beans are golden-brown, they're done.

3. The oil will splatter quite a bit due to the water content in the beans so use protective gear if you need to. On the bright side, frying takes less than five minutes so I didn't find the splattering too much to handle.