Shaved Zucchini Summer Salad #Recipe - Secret Recipe Club

It is another month, and time for another great blog and recipe from The Secret Recipe Club!

What's the secret? Well, I am assigned a blog, I peruse their recipes, drool over posts and photos till I come up with my selection. I make it and then announce "Ta-dah!" who I was assigned and what I made. Sound like fun? This is the brain-child of Amanda from Amanda’s Cookin’, and you can join up, see the other blogs involved and learn all the deets at The Secret Recipe Club blog.

 I was assigned The Ginger Snap Girl's blog. Gloria has a real passion for food and you can tell by the recipes she shares on her blog. What can I say? She is a foodie after my own heart. I love that she offers a wide variety of recipes, from healthy like the Zucchini Summer Salad I chose, to cookies and doughnuts.

Why did I choose zucchini? Well, we have a lot of it right now and I am always looking for new and tasty ways to use it.

This is a really simple and great Summer salad. You will just need a handful of ingredients:

You Will Need:

• 2 pounds small (3 to 4 oz. each) zucchini, green or yellow and or yellow squash, washed and ends trimmed
• 3 ounces of fresh Parmesan cheese, shaved with a vegetable peeler
• 1/2 cup sliced or slivered almonds, toasted (you can easily do this yourself)
• 1 lemon, freshly squeezed
• 4 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced basil
• salt & pepper to taste  

First you need to wash and prepare the zucchini. This requires a mandolin to get the squash a uniform and 1/16 " thickness. I just purchased this upgrade recently and it did a fabulous job!

Here I have an assortment of zucchini and summer squash. Can you tell the difference? The smaller squash on the left is the Summer Squash. The other two are both zucchini, just different colors. We grow all of these on the farm so I grabbed an assortment.Slice the squash length-wise and put in a colander. I slightly salted mine and let it drain over a bowl as I prepared the rest of the dish.

Toasting your own almonds is easy! I love using the cast iron skillet for this. It gives a consistent and even heat. Don't go above medium heat and stir frequently for about 5 minutes or until the reach a nice golden color. Set these aside.

Now grab your fresh basil, I grabbed a little from our garden, and roll it. Thinly slice it.

Now use a plain old vegetable peeler to make long slices of Parmesan cheese and set aside. Now it is time to assemble the salad!

Place the squash in a bowl and toss with the olive oil and lemon juice. Toss in the basil and top with the toasted almonds, Parmesan slices and additional salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste. Did you notice there was very little "cooking" involved? Just perfect for those hot days.

Mmm... Enjoy! Be sure to stop by The Ginger Snap Girl's blog for this recipe and more great stuff. Let her know that Andrea from Adv. in Food sent you.

Be sure to check out all the other great goodies made by other members of The Secret Recipe Club: