Baked Green Tomatoes and Zucchini

Fried Baked Green Tomatoes and Zucchini

I have never had fried green tomatoes and had no interest in trying them until I went through my Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) box from the Farmer’s Market.  With my box came four green tomatoes.  I briefly thought about exchanging them for something different, but one of the reasons we buy our CSA is to be more adventurous and try new vegetables.  So, I told Owen those would stay in our ‘home’ bag and he promptly plopped them in the bag.  I knew I wanted to make fried green tomatoes, but I also knew I wanted them to be clean and baked instead of fried.  I randomly chose a recipe from www.allisonskinnyjeans.com and began to adapt it to fit our dietary preferences and needs.  This meant omitting the Panko Bread Crumbs, parmesan cheese, egg beaters, and canned olive oil cooking spray.  I then began creating a recipe that turned out absolutely delicious, I could NOT stop eating the tomatoes and zucchini.

This is a MUST try recipe:

Ingredients:
2 green tomatoes
2 zucchini
¾ C almond meal (see my homemade milk post on how to make your own)
¼ C coconut flour
½ C Nutritional Yeast
4 whole eggs
Homemade olive oil spray or olive oil in a Mist-O

PLUS a secret ingredient, ¼ C of my homemade ranch dip seasoning

Homemade Ranch Dip Seasoning
2 Tbs salt
1 C dried onion

7 Tbs parsley

Mix together in a container so you can save it to have on hand when you need/want ranch dip or extra flavor (it's delish mixed in grass-fed beef for hamburgers)!

Bonus Recipe: To make ranch dip out of the seasoning mix 1 Tbs seasoning with 1 C sour cream and enjoy!

Process:

Preheat oven to 425

Prepare a cookie sheet by placing a cooling rack on top of it and spraying the rack with olive oil or use a broiler pan – something that will allow the zucchini to cook on both sides in the oven.  You may use a cookie sheet without a cooling rack, but you will need to flip the veggies halfway through the cooking process.

Wash and slice the tomatoes and zucchini; try to slice them evenly 

                I sliced my zucchini in half and then into thirds lengthwise

Wisk the eggs in a bowl or shallow dish

Combine the almond meal, coconut flour, nutritional yeast, and ranch dip seasoning in another bowl

Put a few Tbs of the dry mixture on a plate or in a shallow dish – add to it when needed

                If you use it all at once, it will become gooey and won’t stick to your veggies

Dip the tomatoes/zucchini in the eggs and then rolls in the dry mixture

Place coated veggies on the cooling rack/cookie sheet

Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes and then either rotate the cookie sheet or flip the veggies depending on what you are using

After rotating or flipping, bake for an additional 10-12 minutes

Zucchini cut in half and then lengthwise into thirds

Breaded and ready to go!

These are on a cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet.

These are on our roasting pan.

Baked and ready to be devoured!

Mmmm..goodness!

ENJOY these tasty little veggie treats!  We thought they were so delicious that they are on the menu again tonight.  I’m also excited that I have two tomatoes left and am hoping we have more in our CSA next weekend!

To reheat, I put the veggies back on the cooling rack and into a 325 degree oven for 10-15 minutes!