This is the second Garden Inspirations product I’ve tried in as many weeks – the last being their new BBQ sliders. In case Garden Inspirations is a new name to you, this is a new label from FarmRich, offering plant-based dishes. Inside this cardboard box, you’ll find about two dozen breaded zucchini sticks and one small pouch of marinara sauce for dipping. The plastic bag doesn’t reseal, and you’ll need to annoying defrost the marinara all in one go.
Cooking: For the zucchini sticks you can either bake, deep dry or air fry – I went with the latter. You can defrost the marinara in hot water for 6-8 minutes.
Taste and texture: For the most part very bland and uninteresting. The exterior breading completely overwhelms in terms of taste, and the slippery zucchini is lost somewhere in the background. Interestingly there’s some variation in the coloration of the sticks – check out the cooked pictures below.
See that really dark brown zucchini stick? That singular stick was extra crunchy and delicious, the rest were insipid. My best guess is that these are pre-fried by the manufacturer, and the extra golden brown ones spent a little longer in the fryer before being frozen. Sadly, this is another miss for the new Garden Inspirations line of products for me.
What else is out there: Check out these breaded green beans from Birds Eye. The premise is similar – breaded veggies – but the execution of the final product is better.
Garden Inspirations Breaded Zucchini Sticks nutrition and cooking
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Overall
Are Garden Inspirations Breaded Zucchini Sticks any good?
These are a pass for us, bland and dull. The exterior breading dominates any flavor and there are inconsistencies with the breaded zucchini sticks themselves.
Hi, I’m Stuart, nice to meet you! I’m the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic SLC – Utah’s biggest and oldest online food magazine; I’m also a former restaurant critic of more than five years, working for the Salt Lake Tribune. I’ve worked extensively with multiple local publications from Visit Salt Lake to Salt Lake Magazine, not least helped to consult on national TV shows.
I’m a multiple-award winning journalist and have covered the Utah dining scene for the better part of fifteen years. I’m largely fueled by a critical obsession with rice, alliteration and the use of big words I don’t understand. I started Shop Smart to catalogue my adventures in the grocery store and kitchen. Follow along on Instagram too!