Parmesan Zucchini Crisps

It's amazing how adding a few simple things to an ordinary vegetable creates a new and interesting dish. Once again, I went to Ellie Krieger's new cookbook, The Food You Crave, to try another new veggie side dish. Zucchini is a vegetable that I don't remember seeing much growing up, other than as the candied zucchini my Grandma used to make which, is a beautiful addition to the holiday table and so good it's hard to stop eating it. Now back to the dish I made, Zucchini Parmesan Crisps.

The combination of crunchy bread crumbs and freshly grated Parmesan cheese as the coating for the zucchini chips really appealled to me. I am continually trying to introduce as many different types of vegetables and ways of preparing them to my boys as a way of finding new favorites for our family.

The zucchini is cut into 1/4-inch slices, then tossed with EVOO before dipping it in the bread crumb mixture. The process goes quickly for a weeknight meal. My oven has been behaving badly lately, so I attribute the fact that the zucchini chips did not crisp up as much as I would have liked to the varying temperatures that my crazy oven chooses to give me lately. I will make this again, but I may have to try a different cheese for flavoring as my two boys didn't care for them and I tend to believe that the Parmesan cheese is to blame due to it's stronger flavor. I do believe that you could leave the cheese out all together if you want to and if you do, perhaps adding in some dried Italian herbs in it's place to punch up the flavor a bit. Another change would be the type of oil to something infused with garlic or chili-pepper to really kick it up and create another flavor profile all together. This recipe really does lend itself to many variations limited only by what you may have in the pantry on a given day.

They were delicious and the bread crumb mixture gave it the crunchy texture I wanted even though the zucchini itself was not crisp. So far, I would have to say, that this cookbook is delivering on it's title, The Food You Crave. Each recipe I have chosen has included fresh, quality ingredients and has been satisfying on it's own. I'll continue to share what I make from this book and how each dish turns out. I just love a new cookbook that can be used so easily!