I am a huge zucchini fan — baked, stuffed, fried or sauteed. If you don’t overcook it, it has an almost meaty texture, yet it soaks up all kinds of flavors from surrounding sauces. It even holds up to breading and dipping for an endless array of eye-popping sides and appetizers.
So, I was thrilled to hear that TikTok’s latest viral food sensation is zucchini. But when I found out it was boiled? I was a little less thrilled, I’ll admit.
It’s pretty hard to understand from the outset how TikTok, bastion of all things most fashionable up to the second, has decided that instead of some sexy new gadget’s technique, the hippest, grooviest way to eat your vegetables is ... boiled in plain old salt water.
The apparent originator of the trend, content creator Dana Basta, then dresses it lightly with olive oil and vinegar, and serves with other boiled veggies like potatoes and green beans.
I’m a little bit worried about the lack of a mechanism to concentrate flavors in such a mild food, and about what I can only describe as the squishy factor. Basta’s zucchini is very, very soft.
I’m not alone in my skepticism. I don’t think I saw a single positive comment, but the negative ones are pretty funny.
- “That texture would send me into psychosis.”
- “Have you … tried it other ways?”
- “Whatever is the exact opposite of mouth watering just happened to me so fast.”
- “If all the food on earth runs out I’ll def try this!”
- “This ruined my day tomorrow.”
Despite all the naysayers, a lot of other TikTokers have tried it, and many of them give it the thumbs up, even though they seem a little surprised about it.
“Wait, why is that good?” says taste-tester and content creator My Nguyen.
Not everyone is as enthused. Fellow content creator Trey Parks didn’t hate the flavor, but says the texture was a bridge too far. “I’m a crunch guy,” he quips, “and this isn’t meeting my standards.”
Now I’m really curious. Let’s try it!
Nguyen tried cooking her zucchini at three different lengths of time and ultimately suggests somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes. All the zucchini at my local store today were on the behemoth side, so I went for 15 minutes.
Although Basta eats hers whole, I’m going for a knife and fork for science, so we can see the inside. It’s definitely fully cooked, and it’s very easy to cut with a butter knife. I’m concerned about how watery it looks, but let’s take a bite!
I started with plain Jane olive oil, red wine vinegar and a little salt as instructed, and was underwhelmed, but after adding a bunch of minced garlic and spices ... ?
OK, I was still underwhelmed. Zucchini has an extremely mild flavor, and if Parker is a crunch guy, I’m a flavor girl. I want more, and for my own tastes, this is giving what I can only describe as, well, water salad. The stem end was a little better because it was firmer, but it’s just not my thing.
Still, I’m a registered dietitian and absolutely thrilled when any vegetable dish is trending, so I’m not ready to give up on this idea yet. Plus, there’s more to this story.
Basta calls herself a “Greek girl in Nashville,” and often simple dishes like this one have deep roots, especially if they seem to be getting a lot of love from their long-term fans. I caught up with her to find out where her viral dish came from.
Sure enough, it’s a recipe dear to her because of her origins. Her grandparents lived in Greece, and her mother was born there.
“It’s a dish my grandma would make for my mom growing up, and then both my grandma and my mom would make for us,” she recalls. The very soft zucchini, potatoes, long green beans, and good olive oil and vinegar are part of the traditional side dish, often served alongside some kind of protein and tzatziki.
True to her family’s form, the zucchini Basta was eating in the video were grown in her home garden. She suggests starting by adding the potatoes to the boiling salted water first, followed 2 minutes later by the zucchini, left whole to prevent waterlogging. Then, she adds the long beans after another 10 minutes, finishing with a final 5 to 7 minutes of simmering everything together. She serves it room temperature or chilled, with extra dressing on the side.
She has seen the negative comments but has a good sense of humor about it, noting with a wry wink that her preferred cooking time of 25 minutes is “the internet’s favorite.”
“I really didn’t think it was out of the norm,” she explains, “because it’s always been my normal!”
She also makes the point that a lot of people turning up their noses have probably had zucchini boiled in soup, so maybe it’s more the unfamiliar idea responsible for a lot of the outright rejection, and not the reality.
Basta says, although this version is the traditional Greek-style she knows best, there are lots of other ways to season it if you’d prefer, such as lemon and garlic. I think I’ll try it again soon with a shorter boiling time for my texture preferences, especially the next time I find some smaller, meatier zucchini in the market.
After all, if Basta’s new-to-solids infant son can be a “big fan,” surely the rest of us can work up the courage to try something we’re afraid we might not like. Just because it’s not my thing doesn’t mean it won’t be yours.
“Enjoy the greatness,” she says, “and don’t judge until you try.” That’s advice I can really sink my teeth into.
