Last December, amongst wrapping presents and essentially going broke, I planted a few seeds in anticipation of the upcoming spring. One plant I was really excited about was my Ronde De Nice, a light green, globular zucchini that works amazing in my paleo zucchini bread. And here it is, March, and my little seed has grown enough to flower…

One thing new gardeners should know is that squashes and pumpkins have a female and male flower. The male flowers usually come first, sometimes weeks before you get a female flower (the male and female flower must be present simultaneously and pollinated in order for fruit to be produced). Some experts say it’s to attract pollinating insects for when the plant is mature enough to produce fruit. But in the meantime, you have all these gorgeous flowers that boom in the morning, and close off and wither pretty quickly as the day progresses. Seems like such a waste…

Imagine my delight when one of my favorite wineries offered an appetizer I’d never heard of–battered and fried squash blossoms!  Turns out these pretty yellow flowers are completely edible, so you can enjoy these tasty treats while you’re waiting for the real fruits to take hold! I figured I could try this at home.

I tried my luck this morning when I discovered about four male blossoms. There was some brie in the refrigerator, so rolled about half a teaspoon into a ball and inserted them into each blossom…

I then mixed up a batter of finely ground almond meal, one egg, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of garlic powder and put into into a hot skillet of vegetable oil and fried each side until golden brown…

You need to watch constantly, because the batter will brown quickly in the hot oil.

Now you’re ready to enjoy! You can either eat them as-is or dip them into an aoili like I did.

This is such a classy and easy appetizer, or a light-faire lunch option. I don’t use wheat flour for dietary reasons, but if this isn’t a concern for you, you can easily substitute for the almond flour. Brie is a great carrier for herbs, so you might even try chopping up some herbs like thyme and oregano to mix into the ball of brie that you use for an even deeper flavor delight.

Yay, spring!!!