Description
Oven baked to perfection, these crispy, flavorful, and healthy Italian Baked Zucchini Fries will be gone in a flash! Seasoned with a perfect blend of Italian spices and baked with a crisp coating of deliciousness, the whole family will gobble them down. Couple them with our delicious Easy Healthy Marinara Sauce and you have a great meal, appetizer, or side dish that is sure to put a smile on your face.
Whole Food Plant Based, vegan, plant based, oil free, refined sugar free, gluten free, no highly processed ingredients.
Ingredients
- 4 medium zucchinis, cut into fries
- 2 Tablespoons tahini
- 1 teaspoon medium grind cornmeal
- 2 teaspoons regular grind cornmeal (+ extra for additional coating)
- 1 teaspoon brown rice flour
- 2 teaspoons nutritional yeast
Herb/Spice Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon sweet paprika
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- ¾ teaspoon sea salt (+/- to taste) *
- pinch black pepper
Instructions
- If zucchinis are refrigerated, remove from the fridge at least 30 minutes prior to making. This allows the tahini to evenly coat the zucchini pieces. Tahini tends to thicken and clump when cold. The same applies to tahini that has been refrigerated.
- Preheat the oven to 400 F. Place the oven rack towards the middle, avoiding the lower oven rack placement. If using two racks, keep them toward the center and upper position.
- Line a 14 x 20 baking sheet(s) with parchment paper, set aside.
- Place all the dry ingredients (medium grind cornmeal, brown rice flour, cornmeal, nutritional yeast) and Herb/Spice Ingredients into a bowl, stir to combine, set aside.
- Cut all the zucchinis into fries and place into a large bowl, drizzle the tahini over the zucchini fries. Coat the fries with the tahini, using your hands to get some tahini on all sides of the zucchini fries. When all are nicely coated, line the fries up single file/single layer across the baking sheet(s).
- Sprinkle the fries with the seasoning mixture. Then take each fry and rub it with the seasoning mix that fell onto the baking sheet trying to ensure that each side of the fry has a sprinkling of seasoning mixture on it. Each fry should be thoroughly coated. Then take a little extra cornmeal and sprinkle it over the zucchini fries.
- Bake in a 400 F oven for 10 to 15 minutes. See notes. When the zucchini fries are done, you may wish to place them under the broiler for a few minutes to brown them up some more. Keep in mind if you want to broil them, you make want to reduce your baking time to incorporate the additional cooking time of the broiler (depending on how crisp/tender you want the zucchini fries.)
- Serve immediately with your favorite marinara sauce or our Easy Healthy Marinara Sauce.
Notes
*Sea Salt: Please adjust the sea salt based upon your family’s sea salt preferences and/or based upon dietary needs.
*Oven Baking Time: Zucchini retains a lot of moisture. If you like your zucchini fries more tender, bake them longer and if you like them el dente, then bake them shorter. They will have a crispy coating on the outside, but they tend to get limp the longer they bake due to the moisture content of zucchinis. They will still taste great. Best served immediately from the oven. They will not be as crispy as if they were battered and deep fried, but these baked zucchini fries will taste just as awesome!
*Serving: About 4-5
*Storage: Use within 2 days.