Roasted Zucchini with parmesan Cheese

15/07/2021

Roasted Zucchini with Parmesan cheese – it’s a match made in heaven. And if all veggies can be such a match, we’d become a vegan or vegetarian tomorrow. No, but really, this is by far one of the best veggie side dishes we’ve ever made. And the best part about this is that there is absolutely no deep frying or sauteing of any kind. It helps to stop our craving for the great flavours of cheese.

All it takes all of ten minutes, start to finish — is going to save you from just giving up and composting (or tossing) all that squashy goodness. Thanks to a healthy sprinkling of parmesan, it’s one of those unicorn veggie recipes that’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser.

What is Zucchini?

Zucchini has gained some serious popularity over the last few years. For those who are unfamiliar with, you can constantly found it in many Greek and Korean cuisine. It has become one of my favourite green squash from the summer gardens. It’s a low-carb hero — standing in for pasta in a formerly carb-heavy dish and serving as a delivery device for other favourite foods and ingredients.

Based on researches zucchini it’s a nutrient powerhouse. On top of all those awesome vitamins and minerals, zucchini also delivers über-healthy compounds called carotenoids—specifically lutein and zeaxanthin. It’s those compounds that (per the research) seem to give zucchini additional, amazing health boons.

It helps to guard our skin – that buildup a coat for the skin from UV rays and pollution. According to scientific studies — and also may slow skin ageing by helping to keep skin hydrated and elastic. Research suggests that eating foods rich in carotenoids could slow or lower your risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The key phrase, though, is eating carotenoid-rich foods, not taking supplements. Lastly, regularly eating carotenoid-rich foods—like zucchini—could be good for our bones.

How to Roast Zucchini?

You’ll see a lot of recipes for “baked zucchini”. They might look a little bit like this recipe, however, we call our recipe “roasted zucchini” because of the high cooking temperature. High heat means that the zucchini gets a lovely, flavour-making bit of blister—and it also means that in terms of how long to roast zucchini, it’s in and out of the oven in just minutes. Here are the steps for the best way to cook zucchini, you have our word.

Boldly crank your oven to 220 C.
Dress your sliced zucchini rounds with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Arrange the rounds on a baking sheet, taking care not to overlap them. Grate parmesan cheese generously over the rounds.
Roast! About five minutes, and then finish the rounds off with a quick broil to ensure the cheese gets nice and crisp-bubbly.
Dive in! Enjoy these as a side dish, snack, pasta stand-in—the possibilities are endless.

Starting on a Flexitarian Diet

I have been long procrastinating with my weight, I might look slim but honestly, I haven’t been in a good shape for a very long time. I gave myself all sorts of reasons to enjoy food and neglect the risk of being obese. In April when I admitted to the hospital for my abdominal pain, I realised that my health is on the red line. So I decided to lose some weight and have a better eating lifestyle.

So it has been 6 weeks since I have been on my diet, I’m determined and set a path to stay and eat healthily. I haven’t ordered any takeaway and I’m more conscious of what I’m eating these days. Apart from exercising, I swapped 80% of my meal to plant-based. I never thought that I could do that but I never have been so happy about it as it really changes my daily life (I regret making comments about vegan, plant-based diet in past). With the experience I have, I’m more alert, less sleepy in the mid of the day and each day my body feels much lighter andhappier.

Before doing this, I picked up many of the reading materials, studied and figured what is best for my body. Of course, I have run into walls and make mistakes at the very beginning but I learned from it. I would say that I’m definitely unable to be a vegan anytime soon (or I would want to) because I have lived at least 20 years of eating steak as breakfast. But I’m more than willing to reduce the portion down to 10% – 20% of my diet. So basically, I’m eating a minimum portion of chicken, turkey and fish 2-3 times a week. Only take red meats or shellfish on special occasions of the month or my cheat day.

I didn’t know that I fall into flexitarianism till in the midst of my journey. Flexitarian is a marriage of two words: flexible and vegetarian. Through research, by eating more plants and less meat, it’s suggested that adherents to the diet will not only lose weight but can improve overall health, lowering the rate of heart disease, diabetes and cancer, and for my case hugely reduce the inflammation and sensitivity attack of my gastric and stomach. The frequency of myabdominal pain has hugely reduced based on what I ate.

I want to share this because sometimes change of the eating habit not only could be beneficial to oneself but it helps to improve the environment as well. With flexitarian, you are not restricted with many rules and you are having a healthful vegetarian diet around fibre-packed veggies, fruits and whole grains, you shouldn’t feel hungry between meals at all. It’s my 6 weeks, once in a while when I sharing my favourite plant-based recipes, I will update my journey as well. Hopefully, it does bore any reader over here and it will be helpful for those who want to have a change of their eating lifestyle.

The perfect side dish or main…

xoxo, Angela.