All Recipes

Marinated Zucchini Salad with Olives, Artichokes, and Red Pepper

Marinated Zucchini Salad with Olives, Artichokes, and Red Pepper
  • Category

    Breakfast

  • Cusine

    American

Ingredients

4-5 small zucchini, cut into half moon slices about 1/2 inch thick

1 can large pitted black olives, drained very well

1 jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained very well

1 red or green pepper chopped into bite-sized pieces

1 red onion chopped into bite-sized pieces

1 cup your favorite Italian dressing with no sugar

juice of half lemon

1/4 cup grated Parmesan, Asiago, or Romano cheese

1 T dried basil

1 tsp. dried oregano

Optional: additional 1/4 cup grated parmesan to sprinkle over salad just before serving

Directions

Cut zucchini into quarter slices or bite sized pieces. Steam or saute zucchini until barely tender/crisp, about 3 minutes for steaming and slightly longer for sauteeing, then drain very well. While zucchini is cooking, open olives and artichoke hearts and dump into a colander to drain well. Chop the red bell pepper into bite-sized pieces. Combine zucchini, olives, artichoke hearts, red pepper in Ziploc bag Pour dressing over, just enough to cover veggies, and stir gently. Marinate in refrigerator 4-8 hours. If you can turn it over once in a while to keep the vegetables covered with dressing that would be great, but it’s not essential. <Just before serving stir in a little of the reserved dressing. Sprinkle the salad with more freshly grated Parmesan cheese when serving if desired. At the risk of sounding like a cheese snob, let me say that this is best with freshly grated cheese. I like to grate it on the large side of the grater for the final 1/4 cup and serve the salad with the grated cheese not mixed in. However if all you have is pre-grated Parmesan, not to worry. It will still be yummy.