I know that this may not look like much, but one bite instantly transports me back to my childhood summers. So, what is this weird, brownish food? In my family, we call it zucchini pudding, and my mum always made it during summer zucchini season. I was actually a bit surprised when I did a little bit of searching and found that pretty much all of the zucchini pudding recipes floating around are for savory puddings. Zucchini pudding, as I know it, is a cross between a custard-y pumpkin pie filling and zucchini bread, and it’s just wonderful served warm with a little milk — coconut milk in this instance — poured over the top.
My mum shared her recipe for the pudding, which I hadn’t eaten in ages and had never made myself, and I was nervous about translating the recipe into my own gluten and sugar free version. Would it taste the same? Would one of my childhood favorites be lost to me due to my dietary restrictions? I breathed a sigh of relief after I ate my first bite and knew that this was the zucchini pudding that I remembered, even though the ingredients weren’t quite the same as the original.
adapted from my mum’s recipe
Note: You could use a different type of squash in this pudding, as well. Butternut squash or pumpkin would work very well.
Ingredients
2 cups zucchini (3-4 medium zucchini)
1 cup coconut milk (or dairy milk)
1 cup xylitol (or equivalent sweetener – if you’re using regular sugar, substitute 1:1)
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. cinnamon
4 oz. gluten free graham crackers (1 cup crushed)
a pinch of salt
cooking spray
Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Prep an 8×8 inch pan by spraying lightly with cooking spray.
2. Peel the zucchini and grate it into a medium skillet. Cook over medium heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Allow to cool before the next step.
3. Add the cooked zucchini to a blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend until everything is pureed. Pour the mixture into your prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until a knife inserted into the middle comes out clean. Serve cold or warm with whipped cream or milk poured over the top.
Posted in Alternatively Sweetened, Desserts, Favorites, Food | 6 Comments »
Check out that food shot! Maybe you should hire yourself out for food photography as well! xoxo
posted: September 28th, 2009 at 3:31 pmoh yum! definitely trying this one out!
posted: September 28th, 2009 at 7:13 pmThis looks delish! I think this is one of those recipes that I can fool the kids with, especially since I can’t even get the word “zucchini” out of my mouth without them running away as fast as humanly possible. Thanks for sharing!
posted: September 29th, 2009 at 1:27 pmThanks so much, everyone!
Lisa – I’d never even thought about this as a “secret veggie” dish, but it totally is!
posted: September 29th, 2009 at 7:35 pmOh… Pudding! The English version of pudding. Moist cake-like? Now I get it. Looks delicious! But was that confusing me for a little while.
posted: October 3rd, 2009 at 10:31 pmSorry for the confusion, Meghan! Yes, it’s more like an English pudding than what we think of when we think pudding in the US. I actually wanted to mention this in my post, but I think I was thinking about it so much that I didn’t mention it and just assumed that I did. D’oh!
posted: October 5th, 2009 at 12:38 pm