Zucchini Gummy Candy – A Fun and Easy Zucchini Recipe
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Need a new easy zucchini recipe? Make some zucchini gummy candy! This zucchini gummy candy recipe is made without jello or pectin tastes like commercial gummy treats with no artificial flavors, colors or refined sugar.
I saw a recipe online that made them with drink mix and sugar, and coated them with more drink mix – more sugar and artificial color and flavor than I prefer. So I decided to experiment with a simpler version using fruit juice concentrate. It worked out great!
For those who are not familiar with fruit juice concentrate, it’s concentrated juice that gets mixed with water for drinking. I usually buy it in the frozen foods section, but sometimes you can find it in the juice section.
Naturally Sweetened Zucchini Gummy Candy Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 cups summer squash or zucchini, peeled, seeded and cut into roughly 1/2 inch cubes
- 1 can fruit juice concentrate (11.5 ounce)
- 1 can water
Directions
Prepare zucchini. This is a good use for overgrown garden zucchini – just cut around the seed cavity.
Place cubed zucchini in a large, nonreactive stockpot. (I use an 8 quart stainless steel stockpot.) Pour in juice concentrate and water.
Cook gently until translucent and tender, about 30 minutes. Drain in a colander, spread out on dehydrator sheets so the pieces are not touching. In the photo below I have three flavors (top to bottom): cranberry-raspberry juice concentrate, blueberry juice, and strawberry-kiwi juice concentrate.
Dehydrate at 135° F for 8-12 hours or until tacky but no longer moist. I usually do mine overnight. As you can see, they shrink dramatically. The dehydrator shown in the photos is my nine tray Excalibur, which I invested in a couple of years ago to keep up with the garden bounty. I also have an older Snackmaster dehydrator, which is a great beginner dehydrator for around $50.
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The original recipe I saw called for rolling these in powdered lemonade mix to do a sweet/sour gummy, but the juice provides plenty of sweetness for me. I’d suggest storing these in the fridge and eating them within a month, or freezing for longer storage. With the sugar content and water content, it’s tough to get them dry enough to ensure long shelf life without cooler temps.
And there you have it – summer squash gummy candy made with no artificial flavors or colors and unsweetened fruit juice.
How Many Gummy Candies can you make with one Zucchini?
One large zucchini will probably yield 8 cups with careful cutting. To get some different colors for the photos, I tried two different types of juice concentrate and plain blueberry juice (without added water).
You may notice that the blueberry gummies are less shiny than the other two. They were also less sweet. The texture and taste is amazingly similar to a commercial gummy candy. I used the leftover juice concentrate to flavor kombucha.
PrintZucchini Gummy Candy – A Fun and Easy Zucchini Recipe
This zucchini gummy candy recipe without jello or pectin tastes like commercial gummy treats with no artificial flavors, colors or refined sugar.
- Yield: 2 cups 1x
- Category: Snacks
- Method: Stove top Cooking/Dehydrating
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 8 cups zucchini or summer squash, peeled, seeded and cut into roughly 1/2 inch cubes
- 1 can fruit juice concentrate (11.5 ounce)
- 1 can water
Instructions
- Place cubed zucchini in a large, nonreactive stockpot. Pour in juice concentrate and water.
- Cook gently until translucent and tender, about 30 minutes.
- Drain in a colander, spread out on dehydrator sheets so the pieces are not touching.
- Dehydrate at 135F for 8-12 hours or until tacky but no longer moist. I usually do mine overnight.
- Enjoy right away or pack for snacking. For longer storage, place in a sealed container in the refrigerator and eat within one month. Makes around 2 cups.
Notes
This is a good use for overgrown garden zucchini – just cut around the seed cavity.
Please take a moment to “Like” or Pin the post if you’ve enjoyed it, and leave a comment below with your favorite ways to use up a bounty of zucchini or summer squash.
More Zucchini Recipes
You may also enjoy:
- Zapple Pie – Mock “Apple Pie” Made with Zucchini
- The Best Way to Use Up Extra Zucchini
- Cheesy Garlic Zucchini Bread – Great with Fresh or Frozen Zucchini
- Mom’s Best Zucchini Bread Recipe – A Homestyle Country Classic
- Homemade Zucchini Relish Sweetened with Honey
If You You Don’t Have a Dehydrator
Check out “Home Food Drying – 6 Things You Need to Know to Dehydrate Food at Home” for an assortment of DIY dehydrator options. If you can get your oven cool enough (around 135° F), you could try trying these on cookie sheets, stirring every hour or so until dry.
This article is written by Laurie Neverman. Laurie grew up in the kitchen, learning baking and home cooking from her momma. At age 15, she and her mom and two sisters created Irene’s Custom Cakes & Catering, which was her summer job through most of high school and college.
Originally published in 2012, last updated in 2024.
Delicious made with grape juice that I cooked down to the required volume.
I’m currently making these using fruit punch concentrate. Great idea for using those oversized zucchini that my husband misses when picking
Hi there!
Im doing the keto diet and came a cross this recipe. Wondering if you have tried cooking the zucchini in sugar free jello or sugar free kool aid? Don’t want to use Splenda or stevia. Splenda does have some carbs and I don’t like the taste of Stevia. But I do like sugar free Jello which has no carbs. I think If It was cooked and dehydrated with those it would have very little or no carbohydrates. Just looking for a little something to satisfy my sweet tooth. 🙂 Whats your thoughts?
I’m sorry, I try to avoid artificial colors and most artificial sweeteners, so I don’t have any experience with these products, but I would think you should be able to use them. Try a single batch and see how you like the results. Zucchini, jello and kool-aid are all fairly inexpensive, so it wouldn’t be a huge investment.
Can you puree the whole thing and pour it into silicone molds and then put it in the dehydrator?
I don’t think it’s sticky enough to hold together and set up into the shape of the mold, but I may be wrong. If you try to dry it in the mold, it would take a really long time to dry.
If you decide to try it, test with a small batch. If you get it to work, I’d love to hear how you did it.
I just brought in my first 5 yellow and zucchini squash. And I am dying to try this, as my granddaughter always wants treats.
But I am wondering if I can put the zucchini and juice in my electric pressure cooker. Just so I can be a little lazy and sit back and wait for it to finish.
Ha’s anyone tried this and how long and what setting do you us?
I have not tried this, but maybe 3 minutes on high with the chunks and the juice? That’s the time I’m seeing for butternut squash chunks.
Ooh, nice! Now if I can just get my zucchini to grow!
We’re still waiting on ours this year, too, due to the late start to the season, but I know others are already harvesting and wanted to share.
This is one of the most unique uses for zucchini that I’ve seen yet! I made a delicious mock crisp myself, and that was so incredible that I had to share it on my blog, too. We no longer have zucchini popping up so this will be a fun project next summer- but thank you for the really unique and neat recipe idea!
wondering if you can re-use the concentrate or do you just throw it out?
I used my leftover concentrate to flavor kombucha. You could try using it for another batch, but it’s not likely to give as much flavor because the water from the squash has diluted the concentrate. If you wanted, you could mix it with water to taste and drink it.
Love this idea – getting out my dehydrator now.
I just finished dehydrating marinated zucchini slices with the peel on and when they were finished it occurred to me that they look similar to apple slices. With that my thought my brain started pondering how to make mock apple slices with zucchini. I don’t want to mess with simmering. I have a vacuum marinator, so marinating is an option. In your experience, do you think raw zucchini would take on the flavor of apple juice if it is just marinated? Do you think the addition of a bit of salt would help with the marinating? I also need to consider the best step to add cinnamon – during marinating, or dusted lightly with cinnamon/sugar before dehydrating. If they end up sticky afterwards I plan to dust with arrowroot powder – that always keeps my mandarin orange slices from sticking together.
I’ve never used a vacuum marinator, but they seem to work pretty well for infusing flavors on the cooking shows. Why not try a small batch with apple juice and cinnamon in the marinade, and another with apple juice in the marinade and cinnamon sprinkled on right before dehydrating and compare the results? That’s usually what I do when experimenting with new recipes.
Thanks for the speedy feedback! I’ll try both, first using plain apple juice as a marinade and then stirring in a little cinnamon to see if it is picked up by the zucchini. This will be a weekend project.
I’d be curious to hear your results if you have time to share.
Update: I tried marinading zucchini slices in apple juice concentrate and then dehydrating them. Meh. Bland, very little apple flavor. I tried. 　 Then I cut up a bunch of zucchin in “gummi” sized pieces and simmered the in the leftover juice concentrate. My intention was to not waste the apple juice and try the natural fruit-flavored gummis. It didn’t get that far. I tasted one of the zucchini chunks after it was simmered in the apple juice. After they cooled I measured out enough for an apple crisp recipe. Hubby declared it almost impossible to tell from apple pie. I’ve had mock apple pie made with zucchini slices before, but it was just OK, very bland in flavor. The apple-juice infused zucchini chunks improved the flavor, and the texture of the chunk zucchini vs slices is very good in the crisp. I have another batch of chunk zucchini simmering in the apple juice to get one more use out of it. I will measure out the zucchini and mix it with the other filling ingredients before putting it in the freezer. This wasn’t a win for dehydrating, but it was a homerun for using giant zucchini and cheap apple juice for a terrific dessert. 😀
Thanks for sharing your experience. I’ve made the zucchini mock apple pie, but had good results without using apple juice. (https://commonsensehome.com/zapple-pie/) I do precook the zucchini with lemon, sugar and spices, so it probably gives similar results. The boys wolfed the last one down and I’m waiting for the zucchini to get bigger. Our plants were hit by hail this year and have had a heck of a time recovering.
I make a mock apple crisp using zucchini slices that I’ve boiled in lemon juice sugar and cinnamon. They taste juste like a granny smith apple when baked with the oatmeal/ brown sugar crumble topping. I’d think lemon juice infused zucchini would taste like green apple gummies? Maybe?
We love gummies….gonna try this. My zucchini plants are producing a bountiful supply this summer!
Maybe? I wonder if a little bit of sugar and cinnamon would help to suggest more of an “apple” taste? Let me know how it turns out. We make zapple crisp and zapple pie, too.
My grand kids love these!! But they don’t visit often and I wonder if these could be vacuum sealed and stored in the freezer.d
I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t be able to do that for extra long storage. They keep very well in the refrigerator, too.
OMG that’s an amazing idea!!! Thanks so much for sharing this!
Loved these! I’ll try them with reduced homegrown orange juice next time. I used pineapple concentrate and took advantage of our heat wave (116F) yesterday to dry these in the sun and they came out fantastic. Very addictive, too! Great recipe, thanks!
Glad you liked it. (That’s pretty darn hot.)
Well color me intrigued…. I’ve pinned this & will be sharing on my FB page too. Hubby is a big fan of dried fruits, and zucchini usually is quite prolific in the garden. Wouldn’t it be great if I could provide him the snack he craves at a mere fraction of the cost using excess from the garden? Thanks for sharing!
~Taylor-Made Homestead~
Texas
Two birds with one stone. 😉
These were great – a keeper thanks! I just need to find some flavoring that doesn’t have as much sugar as juice concentrates but that will be no problem. 🙂
Curious if drying simply on a committee sheet out in the hot summer sun would work the same? I make fruit leather that way, so I assume it could written? Has anyone tried?
Yikes, my phone autocorrected a lot… Sorry! Meant to say on a *cookie sheet and it could *work. 😉
Our humidity levels are so high most of the time that I don’t try air drying, but if you used small pieces and fruit leather works in your area, the odds are good that it would work.
This is a great idea! I usually make gummies with gelatin, but this is a perfect way to use up squash! I never know what to do with it all, and it just keeps growing!!
Just wondering. Can you RE-dehydrate zuchinni? I ask because what if you dehydrate then soak them in a juice concentrate (I put my blueberries in my pressure cooker in a steamer basket with 1/2 C water for 1 minute to make a blueberry juice concentrate) let them soak up the juice then dehydrate them again.
Not sure if it’s worth it or not. You think soaking the undried cubes in juice in a vacuum sealed mason jar (foodsave sealer here) might get the juice in without first dehydrating? Vecuum sealing works well this way with marinades for meat an veggies.
Just some thoughts for those wanting to stay away from the sugar and koolade.
I’m not sure I’m following. You want to dehydrate, then soak, then dehydrate again? Zucchini can be rehydrated, but the texture is never quite the same as fresh.
These sound fantastic! What a great idea! We’re a foot deep in snow right now but the zucchini in the summer is always prolific. I’ve let more giant zucchini go to the chickens than I can count. (or the compost) This is a wonderful option. I have a question for you. Do you think that these little gummies would freeze. I’m wondering if I could use a food saver & freeze some while the zucchini is on so that there are some available during these gardenless winter months. Any thoughts?
I’m sure they’d freeze fine, and I did end up with part of a batch getting stuffed to the back of the fridge door that I found mid-winter and they were just fine.
Okay these are in the Excalibur right now! I’ve been swimming in squash from my CSA box, I did half zucchini and half pattypan squash, I’m hoping the pattypan works out!!! 🙂 They should be grape flavored, I’ll update when I pull them out tomorrow. Thanks for the recipe I love that this is such a unique idea!!