I don’t know about you, but if there’s one thing that defines summer in quantity, it would be Zucchini (and Summer Squash). The overload! And even with picking the plants three times a week, there’s still big giant ones that always seem to pop up and dominate the patch. I don’t sell those (but if you would like some, if you’re reading this in mid summer, don’t hesitate to ask, and I’ll give you a bucketful!), but they’re great to shred and freeze, and put in Zucchini bread, and zucchini muffins, and zucchini cooked, and zucchini raw, and zucchini boats, and now I get to introduce you to a recipe which I introduced to my best friends as Turkish, kale colored, and chocolatey flavored (but not a smoothie). Which that comes from an inside joke that started with chocolatey colored and kale flavored (said in an Italian accent), speaking of smoothies. Which it is Turkish, by the way, known as SUTLIKA over there.

So the following is how you make a very tasty VEGAN version of SUTLIKA!

Begin by peeling the zucchini and chopping off the ends, you’ll want 1 giant zucchini per batch for this.

Next, put 1 cup of water in a pot and chop the zucchini into chunks, add them to the pot, and bring to a boil, keep at medium-high heat until soft. About 10-15 minutes.

Next, drain the zucchini chunks, and scoop them out into a blender (a food processor would probably also work (I like to leave a little skin, in a Blendtec or Vitamix, that wouldn’t be an issue), hot, and add sweetened soymilk up to just barely cover the chunks (or course if you stuffed the chunks in it wouldn’t quite work).

Add 1/3 to half cup of cane sugar, depending on how big the Zucchini was, and optional 1/2 to full cup of carob chips (you could also use carob powder probably), this is what gives the “chocolatey” flavor ( if I remember correctly there’s one other trick to make it taste like chocolate, but that’s also optional) then blend away.

Pour the pudding back into a saucepan, and add about 2 to 3 tablespoons of tapioca or non-gmo corn starch. Whisk it on medium heat, until it thickens, the more starch you add the thicker it’ll get, then pour it into a bowl and stick it in the fridge to chill.

Then serve. Enjoy your SUTLIKA!