Boiled Zucchini Is the Latest Food Trend Taking Over TikTok
TikTok has convinced us to make cucumber salads, cottage cheese everything, and more elaborate morning drinks than some coffee shops. Now, it's coming for our zucchini.
The latest food trend making the rounds is surprisingly simple: boil a whole zucchini until it's soft, then dress it with a few basic ingredients. That's pretty much it.
But, before we dismiss this as the Internet discovering how to boil water, there's a sweet family story behind the trend.
Why Are We Boiling Zucchini?
Content creator Dana Basta helped kick off the current obsession after sharing videos of herself eating whole boiled zucchini. The dish isn't something she invented for TikTok.
Dana said boiled zucchini is part of the Greek dishes she grew up eating. Her mother and grandmother prepared it for the family long before anyone was filming lunch for social media.
Traditionally, the zucchini can be served with other vegetables, including potatoes and green beans, then finished with olive oil and vinegar. So, TikTok didn't invent this one. It just gave grandma's zucchini a new audience.
The Softer, the Better
If our usual zucchini preference involves browned edges and a little bite, this trend may require some adjustment. The goal is to get it soft.
Dana likes to boil the zucchini whole in salted water, rather than chopping it into slices first. She lets hers cook for about 20 minutes before adding olive oil and red wine vinegar.
Other people are going with shorter cooking times for a firmer texture, so you don't have to commit to zucchini mush on your first attempt.
The basic version couldn't be any easier:
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
Add a whole, washed zucchini.
Cook it until it reaches the softness you like.
Drain the water and let the zucchini cool.
Finish it with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and a little more salt, if needed.
It may not look fancy, but it's hard to argue with a recipe that simple.
Zucchini Already Had Plenty Going for It
This trend may be new to our feeds, but zucchini didn't need TikTok to make it worth eating.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, one medium zucchini has 33 calories, 2 grams of fiber, and more than a third of the recommended daily value for vitamin C. It also has potassium, vitamin B6, folate, and other nutrients.
Keeping the skin on is a good idea, too. That's where we'll find a substantial amount of its vitamin C and B6. Eating an entire zucchini doesn't sound quite so strange anymore, does it?
Maybe TikTok Is Onto Something
Not every viral food trend needs specialty ingredients, an air fryer, and a trip across town to find something we've never heard of before. Sometimes, we can just boil a vegetable.
The boiled zucchini trend is inexpensive, easy to try, and rooted in a family food tradition that's been around much longer than TikTok.
Whether we're ready to embrace the very soft texture is another question, but we've probably spent more money trying stranger things from the Internet.
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