Zucchini flour

I had never heard of it before but zucchini flour I guess has been around a long time and might be a way to utilize the excess. Sometimes known as Amish flour or troops flour. Something I'll try this year. Big ones that get away from an early harvest sounds like the ones to use, dehydrating slices and removing seeds. Having it very dry being the key to its creation. Not enough room to grow wheat but I can grow a zuke.

I had never heard of this before but in theory it seems like a great idea! Could be an interesting gluten free option. Based only on my intuition from cooking, I'd say this could be a really good base for a fritter batter because it seems like it might be a little denser than wheat flour. I'll try it and see; we end up with so much zucchini, it'll be nice to have a use for it lol.

It looks like squash and pumpkin have also been used, zucchini being the less noticeable flavor wise. Being substituted at 1/3 to regular flours. Fiddling with it for GF recipes is what I'm going to try.

Living in a very dry climate, I've found it's easy to grind dried vegetables to a powder in the blender (actually the Indian mixie). Tomato powder is fabulous. I powdered a ot of dried eggplant and found it sweeter than I expected. I thought I'd use it to thicken curries but somehow rarely did. Dried mushroom powder is kinda nice.

Just yesterday I added zucchini flour to my remaining dredge (egg/milk/breadcrumbs leftover from frying eggplant) along with some shredded cheddar. Fried them up in some tallow as fritters! My son exclaimed that it was the “best fritter ever even tho it looked like vomit.” Guess I’ll have to work on presentation.
Have not used zucchini flour in a baked bread recipe yet but I’ll report back when I do.

Rebecca Norman wrote:Living in a very dry climate, I've found it's easy to grind dried vegetables to a powder in the blender (actually the Indian mixie). Tomato powder is fabulous. I powdered a lot of dried eggplant and found it sweeter than I expected. I thought I'd use it to thicken curries but somehow rarely did. Dried mushroom powder is kinda nice.

Do you make your own? Can you tell us about the process? I've bought tomato powder and it's very useful when the price of fresh tomatoes goes up, I'd be interested in making my own tomato powder.

I imagine that flour can be made from most dehydrated vegetables.

Grinders, coffee mills, and blenders probably will work.

Getting the right consistency to make a dough might be just trial and error. Though maybe it is not that hard at all.

The dough needs to be the consistency of what is being made.

I hope everyone will let us know how the experiments come out.

Melissa Ferrin wrote:
Do you make your own? Can you tell us about the process? I've bought tomato powder and it's very useful when the price of fresh tomatoes goes up, I'd be interested in making my own tomato powder.

Yes, I dry my own vegetables, and then later grind some of them to powder.

I live in a very dry climate so I can just dehydrate things by putting them outside. And the norm is a flat earthen roof because there is so little precipitation, so I just put things on the roof on trays, under a screen against flies, if possible.

If you live in a more humid climate you might need a dehydrator to be sure that some batches don't get ruined before they are completely dry. There are some non-electric solar designs out there, many of them on this site. I like the looks of the Walk type solar dehydrator, which takes a lot of floor space but looks much more reliable than the ones that have a box of screen shelves. Larissa Walk is on this forum.

I prefer to cut the tomatoes in wedges like an orange, rather than flat slices which stick to the trays badly. Depending on the size of the tomatoes, I cut them in halves, quarters, or sixths. I stand the wedges up on trays (often with the wedges still slightly attached so they stand up better) for the first day or two. After that, their surfaces are dry enough that I can push them together to make space for the next batch, or can put them on mesh. Otherwise, the tomatoes stick to the trays badly. After a few days when they seem completely dry, I assume there is still moisture hidden inside some pieces, so I put them in a box or tin, with mesh or cloth over the top, for another week or two.

They get brittle-dry, and make a dry tinkling sound as they jiggle together. I store them in pest-proof containers in a cool dark storeroom, and take out portions from time to time to keep in the handier kitchen pantry. For powdering, I powder them when they are brittle-dry. For salad use, I rehydrate them slightly with a sprinkle of salt water in a closed jam jar for a few days, then submerge in oil with other goodies. For cooking (and I use them this way a lot) it doesn't matter if they're hydrated or dry, I throw the dried pieces into soup, curry, cooked dal or beans, sauce, or whatever, and they rehydrate in a few minutes. I almost never soak them separately.

So my tomato powder contains all the skins and seeds. And it's still bright colored and intensely delicious, so I'm not planning to try removing those before drying.