We’re onto a new week, my fellow vegans! What are you plans or goals for this week? My plan is to eat my first meal (day meal) of the day completely fresh and raw and my second meal (evening meal) should be delicious! Ha, you thought I was going to say something else, didn’t you?
Well today’s recipe has no great story behind it other than supporting fellow vegans and fellow bloggers. Are you familiar with Ugly Vegan Kitchen? Well this Vegan Zucchini Spread recipe comes from Jana with just a few small changes on my part.
I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with zucchini because let’s face it, the vegetable does not hold up well once cooked. It often (too often) gets soggy or smushy or just too dang wet to do anything delicious with it. Now, I’m fully willing to concede that maybe I’m just a horrible zucchini cook and others can do wonders with it, but still it’s a challenge.
And you want to know the craziest part? My best memory of zucchini was done really well. I’ll take you back to about 1993 when I was newly-minted teenager living in the midwestern United States with a mix of people who’s parents and grandparents came from all over the world. One of our neighbors, her name was Rosemary (why do I remember that?) and she gave me a slice of pie. It was a delicious apple pie with the perfect amount of cinnamon and nutmeg and butter. Except it wasn’t an apple pie…it was zucchini!
I know, I was surprised too. Fast forward a million years later to 2024 and I still haven’t tried to recreate it because of all the bad takes I’ve experienced with zucchini.
Until today.
Jana’s recipe seemed like the perfect use of zucchini. You get all the flavor and nutrients without the setbacks.
So, here we are today, making a zucchini dip. Sort of.
Ingredients:
*Zucchini
*Onion
*Carrots
*Tomato
*Garlic
*Fresh dill
*Salt & black pepper
*Lemon vinegar
**The main different between recipes is that mine is an oil free vegan recipe**
Instructions:
*Set the oven to 200C/400F
*Season the vegetables however you like, making sure they’re well coated. If you’d like to use oil this is where you might want to use some.
*Roast the zucchini, carrot, onion and garlic in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes. I used a lot of garlic but you could use 2 or 3 cloves if you’re not a garlic-a-holic like me! Add the tomato during the last 5 to 7 minutes of cooking.
*Let the vegetables cool for about 10 minutes before you add them to your food processor.
*Pulse the vegetables a few times before you give it a good shoosh to get it smooth. Or chunky. The point is that you’re the boss and you can make the texture however you like depending on what you want to use it for.
*For the finale, toss in a bunch of chopped FRESH dill. Use as much or as little as you want because it seems to be that if not the star, DILL is a special guest star in this easy vegan recipe.
Serving Suggestions:
*Grab your favorite crackers and add this bad boy to a vegan charcuterie board
*Use as a vegan spread for sandwiches instead of vegan mayo or mustard or our ol’ pal hummus
*Use it instead of tomato sauce on a vegan pizza
*Spread it on vegan pastry and roll it up for zucchini spread roll-ups
*Loosen it up with water or vegan cream to make a pasta sauce.
This is a versatile vegan dish that can be made time and again, with just a different flavor profile. Add cumin and paprika to give it a different flair, or curry and masala spice…the point is that you might get sick of the flavors but you won’t get sick of how easy this vegan dip recipe is to make.
What’s your favorite type of vegan spread or dip?
The Spicy Spatula 
Whatcha think?