Got zucchini? Make these savory muffins

On the Saturday before Paige went back for her Junior year (!) of college in Ithaca, New York, we headed to the dollar store at Detroit’s Eastern Market late in the day and scooped up a bounty of good things to eat at bargain prices.

Eastern Market’s Saturday hours are 5 a.m.-5 p.m., but many of the vendors start to pack up early. They don’t want to haul their produce back to the farm, so around 3 p.m. you can find lots of deals, especially if you’re not looking for a specific ingredient. It’s not really a dollar store, but we bought little baskets of tomatoes, zucchini and peaches, bunches of beets, a spaghetti squash and some things I’m forgetting, all marked down, most of them to just a dollar.

I put some of the zucchini to use in these tasty muffins from Moosewood Restaurant, a natural foods, largely vegetarian diner in Paige’s temporary hometown of Ithaca.

The recipe comes from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant, one of the dozen cookbooks published by the 40 year-old foodie destination.

These savory muffins, with flavored with cheddar cheese and dill, are best served warm.

Vermont Summer Muffins
from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant
Makes 18 muffins

Ingredients
3 cups unbleached white flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
2-3 tablespoons chopped scallions
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill (or 2 teaspoons dried)

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup grated zucchini
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk*
1/4 cup melted butter

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F
Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add the cheese, zucchini, parsley, scallions and dill and toss lightly to mix.
In another bowl, beat the eggs and then whisk in the buttermilk* and melted butter. Add the wet ingredients to the flour-zucchini mixture and stir just enough to blend.
Spoon the batter into buttered muffin tins, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes or until golden.

NOTES:
*I used 1 cup milk with a tablespoon of vinegar; let it set for a few minutes before adding to the other ingredients.
Instead of greasing the muffin tins I used paper muffin tin liners, which stuck to the muffins when we tried to peel them. Next time I’ll butter the tins and not use the paper.
Ours is a 12-cup muffin tin so I had batter left over, which I baked in a small (buttered) glass loaf pan.