Zucchini Side Dish

So it's summer and there is plenty of zucchini to go around. If you're growing it, you are probably sick of looking at it. And if your not, you probably have neighbors dropping by with bags full of this summer squash or courgettes. Either way, here is a great recipe that I found online and adapted from Recipe Zaar. It's a very flavorful and fresh way of using up all that zucchini!!

Interesting Side Note: According to Wickipedia.com, in a culinary sense, zucchini is a vegetable. However, from a botanical point of reference, the zucchini is an immature fruit, being the swollen ovary of the female zucchini flower. (Wild, huh?)

Zucchini Side Dish
Adapted from recipezaar.com by Tom Collins

Ingredients
1 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoons olive oil
Fine sea salt
Ground black pepper
1 onion (cut into slices, I used Vadalia)
2 celery stalks (cut on the diagonal 1/8" slices)
4 garlic cloves; chopped
1 (4 ounce) can mushrooms; drained and rinsed
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth or water
6 zucchini (small, or 3 zucchini and 3 summer squash, sliced 1/4 inch thick or less)
Zest and Juice of 1/2 lemon
3-4 tomatoes (diced into 1/2 inch cubes)
1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped

Directions
1. Melt the butter and oil in a pan large enough to hold the squash
2. Add the onions, celery, salt and pepper. Saute until translucent on medium heat, adding some of the broth or water if it gets too dry and starts to brown.
3. Add the garlic, mushrooms, broth/water and squash
4. Add more salt and pepper to taste
5. Cook on high until broth boils
6. Place a cover on the pan
7. Reduce heat to a simmer
8. Cook until the squash is crisp tender (only about 3-4 minutes), turning the squash over a few times during cooking (Even if it’s over-cooked, it still tastes great; it just won't look as pretty)
9. Remove from the heat and add the tomatoes, lemon juice and zest and parsley
10. Stir and let sit until the tomatoes are just heated -- You don’t want the tomatoes to cook