It’s not apple crumble. . . it’s Zucchini Crumble! Diced zucchini is baked in sweet caramel and topped with a crunchy cinnamon oat crumb. This dessert had all the flavors you love in apple pie, but made with veggies!
Did you know that you can swap out apples and use zucchini in your sweet recipes? No seriously. Take a peek at my favorite Apple Crumble here, and you’ll see today’s recipe is practically identical.
Is It Apple or Zucchini
My family had no clue that this crumble was made with zucchini, not apples.
Diced into small chunks, zucchini softens as it bakes, just like apples in apple pie. It blends with all the fall flavors we usually associate with apple, like cinnamon, brown sugar and caramel.
If you have zucchini from your summer garden, but feel the itch to start on your fall baking, this crumble recipe is perfect.
It’s also a superb way to “trick” the zucchini skeptics in your life into enjoying dessert made with vegetables!
When you’re tired of baking zucchini bread and zucchini muffins, try something new with today’s crumble recipe.
Ingredient Notes
- Zucchini – Unlike other sweet treats with zucchini, you don’t shred it for this crumble. Instead, it gets peeled and diced into small pieces. If your zucchini has big seeds, go ahead and scoop them out before dicing.
- Lemon juice – Freshly squeezed lemon adds tartness to the sweet zucchini, mimicking the flavor of a tangy apple.
- Brown sugar – Mixed with butter and baked, this sugar creates a rich caramel sauce that envelopes the zucchini.
- Quick oat -. Finely processed quick cook oatmeal makes the cinnamon crumble topping perfectly crunchy.
Easy Instructions
Just like apple crisp, this zucchini crumble is one of the easiest fall desserts you can make!
- Start by tossing diced zucchini with lemon juice, flour, sugars and spices.
- Mix together the crumble topping in a separate bowl.
- Pour the zucchini mixture into a 2 quart baking dish (or 13×9). Sprinkle the crumble on top.
- Bake to bubbly golden brown perfection.
If you love today’s crumble recipe be sure to try our blueberry crumble or our apple cranberry crumble.
Tips and Tricks
- Serve this zucchini crumble with a scoop of cold vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.
- Use your hands to mix the topping ingredients together. It takes a few minutes but mixing manually is the best way to get the perfect crumb consistency.
- Press the crumble mixture firmly over the zucchini before baking to help it stay in place.
Recipe FAQs
I don’t recommend freezing this one. Zucchini releases a lot of liquid when it thaws so the crumble would be very watery.
I do recommend peeling the zucchini. It keeps it looking more like apple!
You can’t taste the lemon at all! It adds tartness to the zucchini that makes it taste deceptively like apples.
More Fall Baking
- Lemon Zucchini Cake: seriously, nobody will know that you stuck a green veggie in this delicious cake!!
- Zucchini Muffins: perfect and easy to bake. The answer to breakfast is here!
- Applesauce Cake
- Pumpkin Pie
- Zucchini Brownies: ssshhhhh, don’t tell anyone, but the secret to these fudgy brownies is all about the vegetable!
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Zucchini Crumble
Ingredients
For the Filling:
- 6 cups zucchini peeled and diced
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
For the Crumble:
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup quick cook oatmeal
- ½ cup unsalted butter cubed
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the peeled and diced zucchini with lemon juice, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg and flour. Pour into a 2 qt. baking dish.
- In a bowl, combine all the crumble top ingredients. Using your hands, combine butter with dry ingredients until crumbly (this takes a few minutes). Sprinkle over the top of the zucchini mixture and press firmly.
- Bake in a 375°F oven for 45 minutes. Remove from oven and enjoy warm with a scoop of ice cream or fresh whipped cream!
Delicious!!! Had so many zucchini from our garden , this sounded like a good recipe to try. Will make again.
It’s one of my favorite summer desserts!
Thanks very much for this. I’m always looking for ways to use up excess zucchini
Zucchini crumble
Very good. I served it to several of my friend’s & they all said apple crisp. I followed the recipe but used apple pie spice. I was amazed with this recipe. Thank you.
Can I freeze the filling and use it another day?
I don’t recommend doing that as zucchini becomes very liquidy when thawing.
Does this come out really sweet? Sounds like a lot of sugar. Would it work with less sugar in the zucchini?
It comes out fairly sweet but you can reduce the sugar.
Definitely worth the time to make- my family was surprised how much it did mimic apple crumble! Ez and yummy. Vanilla ice cream is perfect accompaniment!
Can you can the zucchini apple pie filling to make the zucchini crumble at a later date? If so how do you suggest canning it?
I have not tried canning it, I’m sorry.
I learned from previous “pies” always peel the zucchini, or children will know it’s not apples.
I was told this is why children have trust issues, and leave a table so mad because it was not apple pie. I am going to try this as I do like zucchini pie aka..apple. after all it is zucchini season.
Do you peel the zucchini?
Yes, I did 🙂
I didn’t like this nearly as well as my old recipe, think it was from taste of home, where you precooked the zucchini with the sugar and spices, this left he zucchini too hard, and didn’t taste enough like apples, in my opinion
Unreal!! I have so many zucchini’s in my garden and I was willing to risk wasting a few while baking this. I fooled everybody! Everyone smacked it down so fast and complimented the chewy deliciousness. I will definitely be making again.
FYI You need to peel and remove the seeds if you want to mimic the texture.
I have seen other recipes where zucchini is substituted in place of the apples, but I’ve never tried it myself ….. and now I can’t wait to try it!
Oh gosh it’s so amazing!!!
I can’t wait to show my mom this recipe! She always has so many zucchini that we end up throwing so many to the cows. We’ve done muffins, bread and brownies and they are always good so why shouldn’t this one. Can’t wait!
Enjoy Emily! I hope you guys love it as much as we do 🙂
Wow! Those totally look like apples! What a creative way to use zucchini!
I love that you did this. It looks fabulous. And honestly so intriguing, like I trust you that its fabulous but its one of those things you just have to try for yourself!
I know I know, it’s weird right? But think of all the zucchini muffins and breads that taste amazing and sweet…and give it a try 🙂
What a clever use for zucchini! This looks incredible!
Looks just like apple. Wow!! I have several zucchini I need to use. Looks like you peeled and seeded it. I never peel my zucchini for bread and muffins.
Looks sooo good! Question: is it sweet enough with that amount of lemon? I am not a fan of lemon and that’s why I am asking xo
You can’t taste the lemon, but the citrus gives the zucchini enough flavor to make it deceptively taste like apple!
Woah! Are you kidding? I so want to give this a try and see what my family thinks. Great idea!
Thanks Holly, you should try it 🙂
This looks delicious!! I don’t think I would have ever thought to use zucchini like this!
This is brilliant, Amy! I have a garden bursting with zucchini and this is such a great way to put it to use! And I don’t think my young kids will have a clue what they’re eating – score! 🙂