Fresh, bright, and crunchy, this zucchini salad is the ultimate summer salad. It's perfect for picnics, potlucks, and as a side dish for family dinners.
We marinate the raw zucchini in lemon juice, fresh herbs, and extra virgin olive oil to make this raw zucchini salad flavorful and aromatic.
Check out our best vegan salad recipe collection!
This raw zucchini salad will exceed your expectations because it's delicious, refreshing, and easy to make.
We use a vegetable peeler to slice the zucchini thinly. It's easy, and it takes less than 5 minutes.
Next, we marinate the zucchini in lemon juice, salt, and herbs. You can let the zucchini marinade for as little as 15 minutes and up to as long as 1 hour.
Marinating is essential because:
- The salt in the marinade allows the zucchini to lose some of its water, which you can discard easily before serving the salad. No one wants a watery salad.
- The fresh lemon juice will slightly "cook" the zucchini slices, making them softer but still tender-crisp, more appealing, and turning them into elegant zucchini ribbons.
- The fresh herbs will infuse the raw zucchini will flavor and summery aromas.
As usual, use our recipe as a guideline, and feel free to add your own ideas. For instance, if you are vegan you can add toasted pine nuts, olives, and cherry tomatoes.
If you are vegetarian, try crumbled feta cheese, shaved parmesan, or a few pieces of goat cheese. And now let's see how to make this delicious marinated zucchini salad.
Ingredients
Zucchini
Get the freshest zucchini you can. Even better if you have it from your garden or local farmers market. We recommend using green zucchini.
Smaller zucchini are more suitable than large or medium zucchini because they make smaller ribbons easier to eat.
We haven't tried other zucchini varieties, such as yellow summer squash. However, if you try, please let us know how it turns out in the comments below.
Lemon juice
We use freshly squeezed lemon juice to marinate the zucchini, making them tender, soft, and bright.
If you are a huge lemon fan, you can even grate a little lemon zest on the salad just before serving it. Don't add too much lemon zest, though, cause it will overpower the raw zucchini.
Extra virgin olive oil
Try to use a good quality extra virgin olive oil; you'll taste the difference in this zucchini salad recipe. The olive oil and the lemon together work together like in a lemon vinaigrette to add flavor and freshness to the salad.
Fresh herbs
We recommend using fresh basil and fresh mint as they are incredible with raw zucchini. Dill, chives, and parsley are good options too.
Garlic
We use a crushed garlic clove to infuse a little garlic aroma into the salad.
Salt
Salt serves two purposes in this recipe. First, it helps us purge the zucchini, making them lose some of their water. Second, it adds taste. We use sea salt or kosher salt.
Pepper
Add a twist of freshly ground black pepper or a pinch of red pepper flakes.
Other ingredients
We garnish this zucchini salad with cherry tomatoes and toasted pine nuts. The tomatoes add color and sweetness. The pine nuts add an earthy, nutty flavor and are perfect with the zucchini and the basil.
These ingredients are optional, and you can change them as you like. Other ingredients that go well with zucchini are almonds, arugula, bell peppers, artichokes, carrots, corn, olives, raisins, and walnuts.
Instructions
Wash and dry the zucchini. With your non-dominant hand, hold the stem of the zucchini firmly. With your dominant hand, thinly slice the zucchini with a vegetable peeler.
You can also do this with a mandoline slicer, although we find it quicker and safer with a vegetable peeler.
Transfer the zucchini slices into a large mixing bowl. Add freshly squeezed lemon juice, salt, black pepper, crushed garlic, fresh basil, and mint leaves.
Mix well, so the zucchini are fully coated in the seasoning, then set aside to marinade.
We find that the salad is at its best with 30 to 60 minutes of marinating, but if you don't have as much time, 15 minutes will do.
As it marinates, the zucchini get softer and lose some water; they'll turn into cute thin ribbons.
After marinating, drain the excess zucchini water. We like to get rid of most of it. Then add extra virgin olive oil and mix well.
As a final step, transfer the zucchini to a serving platter (you can also leave it in the same large bowl) and garnish with a sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper, halved cherry tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, and more fresh herbs.
Tip: toast the pine nuts on a non-stick pan on medium heat for about 2 minutes, moving them around the pan often.
Serving suggestions
Zucchini salad is the perfect summer side dish for family dinners, picnics, and potlucks. It's a great complement to most protein-rich dishes.
Try it as a side dish to many of our favorite pasta and tofu recipes, such as:
- rigatoni arrabbiata pasta
- pasta aglio e olio
- lemon tofu (our vegan version of lemon chicken)
- vegan steaks
- tofu and spinach cutlets
- marinated tofu
- air fryer tofu
Bring it to a picnic or potluck with:
- couscous salad with fresh veggies
- rice salad Italian style
- barley salad with roasted vegetables
- quinoa salad ready in just 20 mins
- vegan pasta salad with chickpeas
Variations
Vegetarian zucchini salad
If you are looking to ease into a more plant-based diet slowly, but don't feel like giving up cheese completely, then you can add a little shaved parmesan on top of this raw zucchini salad. You can also make zucchini salad with feta (just a little crumbled on top) or some pieces of goat cheese.
If you make it in advance, add the cheese at the last minute before serving.
Blanched zucchini salad
Not sure about eating raw zucchini? If we haven't convinced you yet that raw zucchini is delicious, then you can do this same recipe with blanched zucchini ribbons.
To do that, scald the zucchini slices in salted boiling water for 3 minutes, then drain and plunge them into iced water or place them under cold running water. Next, use as instructed in our recipe.
Grilled zucchini salad
Grilled zucchini are perfect for adding to salads. Learn here how to grill zucchini. You can easily do so on the stove top with a griddle pan if you don't have a grill.
We usually make a very quick and simple salad by mixing the grilled zucchini with grilled cherry tomatoes, grated carrots, spinach, and arugula, in a large bowl.
We then serve and drizzle the salad with a sweet, tangy carrot and ginger dressing.
Questions
Yes, zucchini can be eaten raw in salads. However, we recommend marinating the zucchini for 15 to 30 minutes with lemon juice, salt, and fresh herbs to make it tastier and more aromatic. Check out our complete recipe for zucchini salad to see how we do it.
No, zucchini is a tummy-friendly vegetable that is easy to digest raw and cooked. That's because zucchini is low in some short-chain carbohydrates that some people might find hard to digest.
More zucchini recipes
If you're also a big fan of zucchini, you can easily add this vibrant veggie to your meals:
- Easy zucchini soup served with air fryer croutons
- Risotto with shredded zucchini
- Roasted zucchini with breadcrumbs
- Grilled zucchini with a lemon vinaigrette
- Zucchini frittata with chickpea flour
- Stuffed zucchini boats with lentils and walnuts
- Easy zucchini muffins with chocolate chips
Storage
Store zucchini salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 36 hours. After that, the zucchini start to lose their crunch and freshness.
For many more salad ideas, check out our salads category page.
Recipe
Zucchini Salad
Equipment
- vegetable peeler or mandoline slicer
Ingredients
- 3 small zucchini
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 - 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 10 leaves mint
- 10 leaves basil
- 1 clove garlic
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 twists black pepper
Optional Ingredients
- 8 small cherry tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon pine nuts
Instructions
- Wash and dry the zucchini. With your non-dominant hand, hold the stem of the zucchini firmly. With your dominant hand, thinly slice the zucchini with a vegetable peeler.You can also do this with a mandoline slicer, although we find it quicker and safer with a vegetable peeler.
- Transfer the zucchini slices into a large mixing bowl. Add freshly squeezed lemon juice, salt, black pepper, crushed garlic, fresh basil, and mint leaves.
- Mix well, so the zucchini are fully coated in the seasoning, then set aside to marinade.We find that the salad is at its best with 30 to 60 minutes of marinating, but if you don't have as much time, 15 minutes will do.As it marinates, the zucchini get softer and lose some water; they'll turn into cute thin ribbons.
- After marinating, drain the excess zucchini water. We like to get rid of most of it. Then add extra virgin olive oil and mix well.
- As a final step, transfer the zucchini to a serving platter (you can also leave it in the same large bowl) and garnish with a sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper, halved cherry tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, and more fresh herbs.Tip: toast the pine nuts on a non-stick pan on medium heat for about 2 minutes, moving them around the pan often.
Louise Carter
This recipe looks delicious and I want to try it soon. I am always looking for new ways to eat summer vegetables, including zucchini.