Rolled Zucchini Salad With Balsamic Dressing
It’s almost zucchini season so I’m sharing a new summer favorite of mine, show stopper Rolled Zucchini Ribbon Salad With Balsamic Glaze. My daughter Jacqueline made it last weekend and we are all hooked! She tweaked a zucchini recipe to make it her own and now we are sharing it with you! You will love this gorgeous, delicious, and easy recipe.
My daughter is quite the cook! She loves to eat fresh, healthy food and has a knack for finding and changing recipes to make them extra special!
We had this salad for Father’s day. It was so fun to work together in the kitchen.
The first thing you notice about this zucchini salad is its amazing appearance! It really has that Wow Factor! Who knew it was such an easy salad to make!
This salad is DE-LICIOUS! The zucchini is tender-crips, the cheese is creamy and so tasty and the rest of the ingredients work together to create a fresh taste explosion!
LET’S TALK ABOUT ZUCCHINI
I have a repertoire of zucchini recipes because they grow like weeds in our area. Honestly, they literally grow inches in a day during the height and heat of their season!
One single zucchi plant can feed a family of four for a couple months. LOL! Not kidding!
They are the “little engine that could” of the garden. They just keep producing hard and outproducing any other vegetable in the garden and then one day, when they have totally exhausted all their energy they just give up and say,
“Okay, that’s all”!
Zucchini are summer squash, members of the gourd family. They are not related to cucumbers which are actually fruit.
Zucchini are water dense vegetables and add lots of moisture to most recipes. They have a mild flavor and a rich buttery mouthfeel. The older a zucchini gets the more bitter it can taste.
HOW TO SLICE THE ZUCCHINI
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I used a mandoline to slice 6 inch long zucchini lengthwise to create thin ribbons. I have a very good mandoline that will last me for the rest of my life and then I can pass it down.
This is my mandoline. It’s pricy, I know, but I was so tired of breaking mandolines. Here’s a good mandoline if you don’t use it hard like I do and it is reasonably priced.
However, you can use a wide vegetable peeler also. It might take a little longer to slice the zucchini.
You can see a large vegetable peeler HERE.
HOW TO ROLL ZUCCHINI RIBBONS
The zucchini ribbons should be rolled around your index finger with ease. If they are too thick they will not roll well and if they are too thin they get flimsy.
After the zucchini ribbons are rolled place them firmly into the whipped cheese standing up at a slight angle.
MAKING THIS ZUCCHINI RECIPE A SUCCESS
The absolute best thing about this recipe is that it is not rocket science. You can tweak the ingredients to suite your own unique tastes. And the recipe is easy to change!
For this recipe, a 6-8 inch zucchini works best! Save those baseball bat size zucchini for recipes like zucchini breads and relishes.
Use a mandoline slicer or large vegetable peeler to slice the zucchini lengthwise. Thin slices are best to roll them easily.
The zucchini can be sliced a little ahead. We sliced the zucchini and laid them on a paper towel. You can also roll them in a paper towel and pop them into the frig for a short time.
Experiment using different cheeses to make a spread. I think these combinations would be so interesting…
- mascarpone and parmesan reggiano
- cream cheese and bleu cheese
- port salut and cream cheese
The key is combining two cheeses that work well together together.
Whip the cheeses until they are easy to spread on the plate or bowl.
Use a store bought balsamic glaze. Making your own takes too much time and a good store bought glaze tastes amazing!
Toast pine nuts in a dry pan. Just be sure to keep an eye on them. I have burned so many pine nuts because I took my eyes off of them for just a few seconds. And once they are burned they are ruined.
Use a large shallow bowl or platter for this recipe. You want the salad to stand up and you want to see this sensational looking salad!
ZUCCHINI RIBBON SALAD WITH BALSAMIC GLAZE RECIPE
ROLLED ZUCCHINI RIBBON SALAD WITH BALSAMIC GLAZE
Ingredients
- 2 boxes Borsin herb cheese
- 1 8 oz container of mascarpone or one box of cream cheese
- 3-4 6 inch fresh zucchini sliced lengthwise
- 1 pint cherry, grape or small tomatoes sliced in half
- 3-4 TBS pine nuts toasted and cooled
- 2 TBS basil finely chopped
- 1-2 TBS good balsamic glaze
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Using a hand mixer, mix together the soft cheeses and smear on the bottom of a low shallow dish or platter in a large circle.
- Cut the top stem area off of the zucchini and slice the zucchini thinly lengthwise.
- Roll the zucchini up and arrange them in a large circle standing on end. Push them into the cheese. Continue to roll the zucchini and fill in the circle from the outside in.
- Cut tomatoes in half and arrange around the outside of the zucchini rolls.
- Sprinkle with the pine nuts and basil.
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and serve immediately.
I hope this salad is on your summer menu!
OTHER RECIPES YOU MIGHT ENJOY
ARUGULA SALAD WITH SHAVED PARMESAN, TOASTED PINE NUTS IN A LEMON VINIAGRETTE
GLAZED STREUSEL TOPPED ZUCCHINI BREAD
GARDEN FRESH STUFFED ZUCCHINI BOATS
loving your blog even more so today…….gorgeous salad!
And it tastes so good too!
What a beautiful salad. We are getting plenty of zucchini here, too.
Now you have another use for all that zucchini!
Pinned!
Thanks, Laura! I love my pinners!
I’ll be making this one!
This looks amazing! Can’t wait to try! Thanks for another great recipe.
You are so welcome!
Oh my! This is such a beautiful salad. My cup runneth over with zucchini and tomatoes from our garden. We are celebrating Father’s Day a little late this year on Sunday. This will definitely be on the menu. Thanks for another delicious recipe.
Now you have another recipe to use the up!
This zucchini salad looks fabulous! Kudos to you and your daughter for sharing such an h artistic salad! Any ideas for serving it??? Slices? Just dig in?
Oh, goodness. I really don’t know. It could easily serve 10 people… at least!
This looks so beautiful and the flavors sound amazing! I can’t wait to give it a try!
I hope you do. We thought it tasted so good.
Mmmm… looks appealing and delicious! Saving to make for company this summer!
This is going on my bucket list for July, looks so fabulous, thanks Yvonne, pinned!
It’s delicious too, Jenna!
Curious how this is served up. Do you use a large serving spoon? Do they unroll on your plate?
It’s the most new, creative, and beautiful dish I’ve seen in the last month or so. Hope she creates more new dishes. Thank you.
We just scooped the rolls and the cheese spread underneath them up. They pretty much stayed rolled up.
I would like to know how you serve the salad. A plate with the salad on it would be nice. I guess you use a spatula and scoop it out from underneath? Sounds interesting !
We used a big spoon and scooped up the cheese on the plate and the rest of it too!
I made this also using hummus instead of the whipped cheese and left off the balsamic. So delicious both ways!
YUM!