Baked Zucchini Fries

These Oven Baked Zucchini Fries are a healthy alternative to deep fried, and they're super easy to make! Nice and crispy on the outside thanks to panko breadcrumbs, these are a tasty, crunchy treat. 

Zucchini fries always remind me of the first time I realized I didn't understand nutrition.

I must have been about 14 years old, maybe less, and had been out for lunch with a friend. I remember coming home and announcing, with pride, that we'd shared a healthy lunch, my friend and I, of zucchini fries (dipped in ranch dressing, of course) and a caesar salad (Related: Vegetarian Caesar Salad with Kale).  

Look what we just ate! Practically just vegetables and nothing else! I thought we had cracked the code for healthy eating!Oh my, how little we knew.  

Now y'all know that here on Hey Nutrition Lady we've got a firm policy against food shaming and we don't believe in food guilt. We don't believe in good foods or bad foods or clean foods or whatever the kids are calling it these days, and we don't demonize particular ingredients.

Having said that, when you can make beautiful crunchy oven-baked zucchini fries that are every bit as delicious as those made in the deep fryer, why would you not?!

What goes into baked zucchini fries?

The ingredients list is short and sweet! Here's what you need:

• Zucchini --> Can't make zucchini fries without zucchini! 
• Flour --> For dredging
• An egg --> For dunking
• Panko breadcrumbs --> For a crispy coating
• Some spices --> To spruce things up.

That's it! Super simple!

How do you make baked zucchini fries?

The easiest ways to make thse is to set up a dredging --> dipping --> coating assembly line. It's easier than you think!

Step 1: Dredge the zucchini in a bit of seasoned flour. This makes the surface nice and dry so that the egg has something to stick to.

Step 2: The zucchini stick goes into the egg bath, were it gets nice and sticky.

Step 3: Now it goes into a waiting bowl of seasoned panko bread crumbs, where it gets tossed and coated.

Step 4: Put the crusted zucchini on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Step 5: Repeat the steps with the remaining zucchini.

Step 6: You're going to put a large baking sheet into the oven to get screaming hot. A few minutes before you're ready to bake the zucchini fries, you'll liberally coat the pan with oil.

Remember, these are baked and not deep fried, so when I say liberal I freaking mean it.

Step 7: Once the oil is nice and hot you'll pull the tray out of the oven (please use oven mitts) and quickly arrange the coated zucchini in single layers. There are no process shots of this step because a tray of super hot oil + me and my camera trying to get pictures of that would be a hot mess, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Since the tray and the oil are both nice and hot, the zucchini fries should start to sizzle as soon as they hit the tray.

Step 8: Put the tray back into the oven and bake those fries for around 10 minutes. Then, give 'em a flip and bake for another 10.

That's it! Hot, crispy oven-baked zucchini fries are now yours to feast on and enjoy.

Pro tips / recipe notes:

*The dredging --> dunking --> coating process will be a lot less messy if you make sure to use one hand for all of the dry steps (dredging and coating) and the other hand for the wet step (dunking).

*Recruit a friend / kid / helper and create a zucchini fry assembly line to make this faster / easier! But even if you go at it solo, I promise it'll only take 10-ish minutes to get through the whole batch.

What kind of oil do you recommend for this recipe? 

Confession: I use olive oil for pretty much everything. Yes, it goes above its smoke point in this recipe. No, that doesn't freak me out. But you could certainly replace it with a neutral flavoured oil with a high smoke point such as canola or peanut oil.

Can this recipe be made vegan? 

Probably, but I've never tried without the egg. The nice ladies at Veganosity have a recipe for vegan baked zucchini fries that you could try out if you wanted.

Can this recipe be made gluten-free? 

Again, this is not something that I've tried, but I don't see any reason why you couldn't replace the all-purpose flour with a gluten-free blend, and there are certainly gluten-free breadcrumbs on the market.

I can't find panko bread crumbs! 

Check the Asian section of your grocery store, or a specialty Asian market for panko. And if you can't find them, regular bread crumbs will also work. I've also been known to mix half regular bread crumbs with half crushed potato chips for a panko-like effect.

Can I make this recipe in advance?

You can get the fries coated and ready to bake in advance, but once they're cooked you're going to want to eat them pretty much immediately so they don't get sad and soggy. Nobody wants sad and soggy zucchini fries.

Hey Nutrition Lady, what's the deal with Zucchini?

So much good stuff, my friends!

Zucchini is a starchy summer squash that not only provides a good amount of dietary fiber (2.5 grams per cup), but it also provides polysaccharide fibers like pectin that have special benefits for blood sugar regulation.

Not only that, but zucchini is a great source of antioxidant nutrients, including the carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin. Since the skin of this food is particularly antioxidant-rich, it's worth leaving it on when you cook with zucchini.

Zucchini is also a very good source of vitamin C, magnesium, dietary fiber, phosphorus, potassium, folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin K. Additionally, it has a notable amount of vitamin B1, omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, and iron.

Other recipes you might enjoy:

Kamut and Zucchini Fritters
Warm Zucchini Noodles with Tomatoes and Halloumi
Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread with Quinoa
Chocolate and Olive Oil Zucchini Cupcakes
Baked Risotto Balls