This calabacitas recipe yields a healthy, vegetable-packed side dish in barely any time at all! Celebrate summer with fresh corn, zucchini, and tomatoes.

THE INGREDIENTS: 

Fresh Corn: We already feel as if we put a generous amount of corn in this recipe, so we wouldn’t recommend increasing it. For extra ease, opt for roughly a 10 oz bag of frozen corn! We’ve made that swap plenty of times and still enjoyed this vegetable-packed side dish.

Tomatoes: The tomatoes in this dish may cook down, but they’re still necessary! Even if you aren’t getting bites of diced tomato, the tomato flavor still coats your zucchini and corn. If you do like some bites of fresh tomato, just add the tomatoes later in the cooking process! The earlier you add the tomatoes, the more they’ll break down and your vegetables will be as if they are lightly coated in tomato sauce instead of having chunks of tomatoes present. If you add the tomatoes when the corn and squash are almost done cooking, they’ll retain their shape and be individual, separate bites. Do what you like best! If you don’t have fresh tomatoes on hand, you can actually reach for your canned tomato sauce, canned diced tomatoes, or even tomato juice. Use your best judgement for how much to add. You’re aiming to lightly coat the veggies!

Zucchini: Calabacitas actually gets its name from the zucchini added to this side dish. You may just be used to the regular zucchini and yellow summer squash at the store, but there are more types! The type that fits this recipe best is, ironically, called calabacitas squash. Calabacitas squash is very similar to zucchini, though, so interchange with what you have here. Even yellow summer squash works without a problem in this recipe! 

Onion: A bit more flavor never hurts, right? That’s exactly why this onion is here. If you don’t have an onion on hand, this is a great recipe for dried minced onion or onion powder! Go for 1 tablespoon of onion powder or two tablespoons of dried minced onion. You can add the onion powder at the same step as the salt and black pepper. For the dried minced onion, we recommend cooking it in vegetable oil until fragrant before continuing with this recipe. That should only take about 30 seconds. 

Garlic Cloves: Same as the onion, these garlic cloves are here to bring some flavor! If you don’t have any fresh garlic on hand, garlic powder is fine. We would use about ½ teaspoon of garlic powder in this recipe. You can add it when you add the salt and black pepper! 

Vegetable Oil: Vegetable oil helps to bring out the flavor of our onion and garlic. Besides that, it also helps to cook our vegetables. We don’t measure the oil when making this recipe, so just add a little to get your onion cooking and go from there. We’ve provided an estimate in our recipe, of course!  

Salt: Even if your main dish or other sides had salt, this vegetable side dish would still fall flat without it! As always, adjust to your preferences. 

Black Pepper: Black pepper is a simple flavor that combines with all of the other flavors in this dish to make these calabacitas as flavorful as they are. Feel free to increase, decrease, or omit as you know your family’s tastes best. 

Cilantro: Some people think cilantro tastes like soap, isn’t that weird? Personally, we know more people that like cilantro than feel like they just ate a meal seasoned with aloe vera hand soap. So, that is why we’ve included cilantro as an optional ingredient in this recipe! Add if you enjoy the flavor and ignore it entirely if your taste buds can’t stand it. This is also a great recipe for using up an excess parsley you have in the fridge. Just replace cilantro with parsley 1:1. It adds a different flavor, but a good one nonetheless!

Cotija Cheese: Cheese may not make everything better, but it sure helps in this calabacitas recipe. Just top this side dish with as many crumbles as you want and be on your way! If you don’t have cotija cheese on hand, goat cheese crumbles or feta cheese are great cheeses to reach for. 

KEY INFORMATION: 

What Goes With Calabacitas? It’s no secret out there that a lot of families do Taco Tuesdays. If your family is one of those, and things are getting a little too routine, why don’t you shake it up by adding calabacitas as one of your side dishes? Calabacitas go with tacos, taquitos, enchiladas, quesadillas, and more. In fact, calabacitas doesn’t only have to be a side dish. You can even make calabacitas tacos! 

If none of those meals sounded like your jam, know calabacitas is also a great replacement for any meal you would have served with buttered corn and/or peas. So, make it your veggie for your next meat n potatoes dinner night, too!