Zucchini Salad

Zucchini salad is a graceful, vibrant, and zesty recipe with thinly sliced zucchini ribbons marinated in lemon juice and olive oil.

The salad looks lovely, with the bright color of the zucchini and the wavy ribbons creating a captivating look.

It’s excellent as an appetizer or side dish, adding a pop of color and freshness to your dinner.

Dietary Note: this recipe is suitable for a vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free diet. It’s low in cholesterol and saturated fats.

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Zucchini salad is an excellent summer salad because it’s easy, refreshing, and doesn’t require cooking – just like our creamy cucumber salad, noodle salad, and chickpea salad.

You simply have to slice the zucchini into thin ribbons with a vegetable peeler and marinate them in lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and fresh herbs for a few minutes.

To make the salad more substantial, add toasted pine nuts, olives, and cherry tomatoes and serve it on a hummus plate.

Or you can top it with crumbled feta cheese, shaved parmesan, or a few pieces of goat cheese.

Marinating is essential because:

1. The salt in the marinade allows the zucchini to release water, which you can discard easily before serving the salad.
   
2. The lemon juice slightly “cooks” the zucchini slices, making them softer yet tender-crisp and transforming them into elegant zucchini ribbons.
   
3. The fresh herbs will infuse the raw zucchini with flavor and summery aromas.

Quantities are in the recipe box at the bottom of the page.

Zucchini

Get the freshest zucchini you can. It is even better to get it from your garden or local farmers market. We recommend using green zucchini or yellow summer squash.

Smaller zucchini are more suitable than large or medium zucchini because they make smaller ribbons that are prettier and easier to eat.

Lemon juice

We marinate the zucchini with freshly squeezed lemon juice, making them tender, soft, and bright.

Optionally, you can add grated lemon zest to the salad.

Extra virgin olive oil

We recommend a good quality extra virgin olive oil.

The olive oil and lemon work together, like in a lemon vinaigrette, to add flavor and freshness to the salad.

Fresh herbs

We recommend using fresh basil or fresh mint, which are incredible with raw zucchini. Dill, chives, and parsley are good options too.

Garlic

We use a crushed garlic clove to infuse the salad with a little garlic aroma. However, the salad shouldn’t be overly garlicky, so we remove the clove before serving it.

Salt

Salt serves two purposes in this recipe. First, it helps us purge the zucchini, making them release some water. Second, it adds taste. Use sea salt or kosher salt.

Pepper

Add a twist of freshly ground black pepper or a pinch of red pepper flakes.

Other ingredients

You can garnish this zucchini salad with cherry tomatoes, toasted almonds, or 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 arugula, bell peppers, artichoke hearts, carrots, corn, olives, raisins, thinly sliced red onion, oregano, ripe peach wedges, walnuts, and pecans.

US cups + grams measurements in the recipe box at the bottom of the page.

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.

Transfer the zucchini slices into a large mixing bowl.

Add freshly squeezed lemon juice, salt, black pepper, crushed garlic, fresh basil, and mint leaves.

Toss well so the zucchinis are fully coated in the seasoning, then set aside to marinate.

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 they marinate, the zucchini will become softer and lose some water, turning 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 and garnish with halved cherry tomatoes, toasted almonds or pine nuts, and more fresh herbs.

Season with an extra pinch of salt, black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.

Tip: toast the nuts on a non-stick pan on medium heat for about 2 minutes, moving them around the pan often.

Zucchini salad is the perfect summer recipe for family dinners, picnics, and potlucks. It’s an excellent light lunch and side dish to complement most dishes.

To make it more substantial and have it as a healthy lunch, we recommend serving it on top of a spread such as:

• Hummus
• White bean dip
• Muhammara
• Romesco sauce

Alternatively, it’s excellent as a side dish next to:

• Pesto pasta salad
• Asparagus soup
• Eggplant Parmigiana
• Tomato risotto
• Fried tofu

Blanched zucchini salad

If we haven’t convinced you yet that raw zucchini is delicious, you can do this same recipe with blanched zucchini ribbons.

To do that, scald (boil) 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, dress them with lemon juice, olive oil, fresh herbs, salt, and pepper before serving them.

Grilled zucchini salad

Grilled zucchini are perfect for adding to salads. Learn here how to make grilled zucchini.

If you don’t have a grill, you can easily cook it on the stovetop with a griddle pan.

We usually make a quick and simple salad by mixing the grilled zucchini with 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.

Storage

Make ahead: You can make this recipe up to 12 hours ahead of time, discarding the excess water and seasoning with olive oil before serving.

Refrigerator: Store zucchini salad in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 36 hours. After that, the zucchini will start to lose its crunch and freshness.

Freezer: fresh zucchini salad is not suitable for freezing.