Sautéed Zucchini and Cherry Tomatoes
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy.
Crisp zucchini, burst cherry tomatoes and meltingly sweet red onions make a lovely summer side dish.
As much as I love fall produce — thoughts of Honeycrisp apples, winter squash, and sweet potatoes are already dancing around my head — I’m not quite ready yet. So here’s one last hurrah for colorful summer veggies: a side dish of crisp zucchini, burst cherry tomatoes, and meltingly sweet red onions sautéed in olive oil. If it sounds basic — you’re right, it is — but it’s one of those dishes where the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. Pair it with grilled salmon or chicken and some orzo doused with a bit of lemon and olive oil for a light and easy weeknight meal.
What you’ll need to make Sautéed Zucchini and Cherry Tomatoes 
How to make it
Begin by chopping the vegetables. Be sure to cut the zucchini in large chunks because you don’t want it to cook too fast and get soggy. As far as zucchini is concerned, crisp is always the name of the game.
Next, heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan and add the red onions.
Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions are very soft and pale purple.
Add the zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, salt, and pepper.
Cook for 3-5 minutes, until the zucchini is cooked but still crisp, and the tomatoes have started to collapse, creating a little sauce.
Stir in the fresh basil, season to taste and serve. That’s all there is to it. Enjoy!
You may also like
- Ratatouille
- White Bean Ragout
- Corn, Zucchini & Tomatoes with Goat Cheese
- Chesapeake Corn, Tomatoes and Basil
Sautéed Zucchini and Cherry Tomatoes
Crisp zucchini, burst cherry tomatoes and meltingly sweet red onions make a lovely summer side dish.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small red onion, diced
- 1 pound zucchini (2-3 medium), cut into ½-inch chunks
- 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved (I usually buy NatureSweet Cherubs)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon fresh chopped basil, plus more for garnish if desired
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large sauté pan. Add the red onions and cook, stirring frequently, until very soft and pale purple in color, 7-8 minutes. Do not brown.
- Add the zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, salt and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, for 3-5 minutes, or until the zucchini are cooked but still crisp and the tomatoes have started to collapse, creating a little sauce. Stir in the fresh basil, then taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with more fresh basil if desired.
Nutrition Information
Powered by 
- Per serving (4 servings)
- Calories: 104
- Fat: 7g
- Saturated fat: 1g
- Carbohydrates: 9g
- Sugar: 6g
- Fiber: 3g
- Protein: 2g
- Sodium: 529mg
- Cholesterol: 0mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Gluten-Free Adaptable Note
To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you're following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.
See more recipes:
Comments
Add a Comment
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Absolutely LOVE this recipe! Was trying to find something a little different for veges, and this hit the mark! Great flavor, easy to put together. Thank you!!
I love this recipe. Everything goes perfectly well with eachother and its easy. I find that my zucchini always cooks faster than the way I like my tomatoes cooked, so I put my tomatoes in first and let them cook up really good before I add the zucchini.
This dish is amazing! My kids love this and it as hard to get them to eat zucchini. I like this dish with simple grilled chicken. It is also a great sauce for pasta!
I’ve made this recipe over and over again…and it NEVER disappoints. Such simple ingredients, but so elegant.
Another winner!!! THANK YOU JENN you never let me down! I always know I’m going to serve a delightful meal when I use your recipes. I can’t believe it took me so long to make such an obviously yummy side dish. It will be yet another staple at our house.
This was delicious with garden fresh vegetables! Very easy and simple but flavorful!
Quick, easy and tasty. It was yummy even though I used a 1 lb. chunk of a giant zucchini that my neighbor gave me. I suspect it would be even better with smaller, more tender zucchini.
one year after….. or so!
care for another comment?
Believe it or not; I made this yesterday because I had:
2 zucchini
3 hands full of cherry toms
onions, garlic, herbs from the garden
2/3 orig Greek feta cheese
—-
made this in exactly the same way as you wrote and found your recipe because I thought I would like to see with how many gorgeous recipes for zucchini the web is coming up….
We had Greek keftas with it and Greek yoghurt with herbs & salt flakes…. And an Italian organic red wine (there ARE certain bonuses for being a Swiss couple living in France and having friends from all over the world….)
Kiki
PS: I’m so charmed with your recipes that I subscribed… :)))
I made this last night as part of a vegetarian dinner. Very delicious and I love how it showcases summer vegetables. Thank you for the recipe!
This is not only a delicious dish, but it is also beautiful, cheap, healthy & easy! I’ll be making this a lot more often.
This recipe is fantastic! I’ve made it four times already. I have tried numerous ways to get my husband to eat zucchini, and this is finally it! He actually likes it, not just tolerates it. Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Jenn! Just made this recipe yesterday for my week’s lunches! I love it! I really enjoyed the touch of basil flavor in every bite! I love zucchini…and yet manage to overcook it from time to time. Not this time, thanks to your great instruction it is PERFECT! Thank you for sharing your skill!
Made this delightful dish a while back when the tomatoes were really in season and it was so easy to make and so delicious!
Hi Jen, do you think the sautéed zucchini and cherry tomatoes would go well on couscous and paired with your mirin glazed salmon? My children look forward to dinner everyday and you’re my favorite cooking companion :). Many thanks!
Hi Kristine, Thank you for the wonderful feedback and I’m so sorry for the late reply! I think this dish would go wonderfully with couscous and simply grilled or broiled salmon (with just salt, pepper and olive oil).
This is a great side dish. You could make it the main dish by adding black beans and cheese or sausage would be good.
While camping recently I shaped aluminum foil into a pan, then cooked this dish over the grill. It was great.
Summer is over and I made this recipe one more time. Like several of the reviews I read, I too, paired it with salmon and was very pleased with the result. Earlier in the season I made it as a pasta topping. It is top of my list of zucchini recipes and will be early on my list next summer when the season starts all over again.
Can this be eaten cold or reheated?
Sure 🙂
Great balance of flavors for a simple dish! Thanks!
Just made this for dinner. So easy and just so delicious! Thanks, Jenn, for yet another wonderful recipe.
Delicious!
The zucchini, onions and tomato dish is a perfect topping for rice or pasta. Either way, our grandchildren inhale it.
Life is Good,
BobHallsr
I’ve made this a couple of times now. The first time I made it, I used grape tomatoes, but found that they didn’t provide as much juice as I’d hoped. The second time I used chopped Roma (or plum) tomatoes. I found them to be much juicier and an improvement over the cherry tomatoes. I tend not to keep fresh onions or garlic in the house, so I used dried onions, garlic powder, and dried basil. I probably missed out on some flavor freshness this way, but I still loved the recipe and will continue to make it.
I was happy to find this recipe because I have zucchini, tomatoes and basil growing in my little back yard garden. It was absolutely delicious, and so quick and easy to put together!
This dish was super easy, fast, and also delicious.
Wonderful taste and textures. This is a fantastic side for any entree!
For some reason, in 36 years, I’ve never thought about cooking zucchini this way?! Thank you Jenn for for the brilliant idea! The chunking of the zucchini kept it crunchy and the onion, garlic, tomato, and basil made it even more delicious! My entire family ate it all!
This side dish was the first recipe tried from the onceuponachef.com site. I am now a follower and continue to come back here to try more recipes. This side was a simple, yet tasty dish and allowed me to use up veggies I had on hand. Seasoning was good – not fancy. My husband and sons even commented we should have it again (which was surprising since I don’t normally get such positive comments on dishes with cherry tomatoes.
I made this exactly as described and it turned out perfect! Absolutely delicious! Next time, I will choose a smaller onion than what I had on hand today. 🙂 Thank you Jen! Your website it my favorite “go-to” for recipes. Every single dish I’ve made of yours has been 5 stars!
Is this strictly served warm or would it be good chilled?
Hi Shanti, I serve it warm but no reason it wouldn’t be good chilled too 🙂
Great, thanks!
Loved this. Reduced the onion (personal taste), added linguine and feta for a main dish!
This recipe turned out great! I was pleased that the zucchini stayed firm and didn’t turn to mush, which has happened to me in the past. Also, I added red pepper flakes for a bit of heat. I’ll definitely make this again!
So simple, and so tasty/filling. Subbed the cherry tomatoes for a tomato trio pack from Wegman’s for a texture variant. I was a big fan of this side dish. My main course was the southwestern maple glazed salmon. (Drools.)
I made this last night. I didn’t have enough zucchini so I used asparagus. It was easy, delicious and impressive looking. I sent the recipe to my daughter. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
This is such as easy and refreshing side using fresh summer veggies that I seem to always have in my kitchen. Important to cut the zucchini in large chunks. I sliced it in quarters, then chopped in large chunks. Then you want to add to the sauteed onions and cook for no longer than 5 minutes to keep each chunks slight crispness. Any longer and it will be mushy chunks. Simple, fresh ingredients along with chicken kebabs was a great pair!
Great little summer side dish! Even though you cook everything, it feels very fresh. We’ve had as a side to both pork and chicken, and I think it would go great with steak too due to the tomatoes.
I’ve substituted yellow/ sweet onions for the red onions and it’s gone over quite well.
The recipe is just TOO easy to pass up!
This is my go to recipe for bbqs! It just screams summer. I made it just as directed. Another winner, Jenn!!!
Review: I tried this recipe and found it timely as I had some zucchini laying around. It was delicious! The melding of the flavors was like a festival in my mouth! Yum!! Thank you!
I truly enjoyed this recipe, it was so easy to make.
We’ve made this for years.. In texas summer squash and zucchini are a garden staple. I cheat with minced garlic from a jar, and usually a dry herb added while cooking the tomatoes at the end.
Simply delicious! Would not change a thing.
This recipe looked absolutely delicious, and contained things that I love. However, mine did turn out soggier than I anticipated. Based on the photos, I think my zucchini, onion, etc. were chopped to similar size. Not sure if my tomatoes were overripe or if my temperature was too high. I will have to try again.
Hi Paula, Yes, it’s important not to cut the zucchini too small, otherwise they cook too quickly and get soggy before the tomatoes are done. Or maybe just cook it less next time.
Just made this tonight – it was delicious, and so easy to throw together. I served it as a side dish to a plain grilled salmon and white quinoa and it added some nice color and flavor. Thank you for such a great and easy recipe!
This recipe was a perfect choice to use up extra summer garden produce. We have a large family, so I doubled it and made it on two large pizza pans in a 400 degree oven. The oil and onions went in first for about 8 minutes, stirring once. The other ingredients went in for 9-10 minutes total. Looking forward to a chance to win the Analon Cookware set.
I’ve made this twice now, and served it alongside brown rice and grilled salmon. It’s absolutely fantastic! We substituted Mrs. Dash for the salt the 2nd time around to keep it lower sodium for a friend joining us for dinner, and it was just as tasty!
Thanks for sharing! It’s a keeper 🙂
This recipe was easy to make and so visually appealing! I am not a big zucchini fan, but this was delicious. We served with some NY strip steaks and grilled bread. My husband said it tasted like very fresh ratatouille and ate his on top of the bread. Nice easy recipe after a busy fall weekend. Thank you, Jenn.
Well! That recipe was posted just in time! I’ve got cherry tomatoes pour out of the frig. Thank you ~
Nice one! I make a very similar dish but omit the onion and add halved brown button mushrooms instead, with a knob of butter added at the end.
The hubby’s favourite summer side dish.
Whenever I see a new recipe from you in my inbox, I get WAY more excited than I probably should. Seriously, you have the best, most consistently reliable recipes of any food blogs I follow. My family and I have loved every single one I’ve made (which is many!).
That said, I will be making this ASAP. Thank you for being awesome!
now I know what i am having with my crispy sauted salmon tonight! Thanks
Marjory
Perfect for a Sukkot potluck we’re invited to! Thank you!