Courgette | Canalside Community Food

As courgette production ramps up, you may be finding you already need extra culinary inspiration to use a backlog of courgettes that are already accumulating in your fridge. It’s worth knowing that the beautiful yellow ones don’t keep quite as well as the green ones, so if you have picked up one of the golden gems, you’ll need to convert it into something delicious a bit more quickly than if you have only green ones.

There is a multitude of courgette recipes on BBC Good Food which includes curries, chocolate brownies and a few different cakes, courgette fries, rataouille tart, soups, risottos, a gratin, pakoras and fritters, a pilaf, lasagne, a tempeh traybake (linking this one as I have some tempeh waiting in the cupboard for some inspiration to use!) and many more ideas!

In the past I’ve enjoyed Lemon Courgette Cake much like this one.

You could also try courgette and cheese mini breads or soda bread.

As always, there is also a wealth of ideas in The Boxing Clever Cookbook  (easily available secondhand for a few pounds) – 14 courgette recipes to be precise! This includes recipes such as courgette, potato and coriander pie and courgette pate, as well as some more unusual sounding ideas such as courgette curry pancakes and courgette and cabbage crumble.

For courgette recipes that Rebecca has tried and shared, look here.

Here is another thing to do with cucumbers when you tire of slicing them into salads. Yotam Ottolenghi remarks that ‘grilling cucumbers gives them a nice charred flavor while retaining their bite. . . Torn mozzarella adds richness to the cucumbers doused with a garlicky, spiced tomato dressing’. You could also grill the cucumbers on an outdoor grill, if you run to such things. I used a mixture of cucumbers and slim courgettes, which worked very well. Serve with some good bread to soak up the excellent tomato sauce.

Grilled Cucumbers with Tomato-Cardamom Dressing and Mozzarella
Serves 4 as part of a larger meal or 2 as a main

Ingredients
For the Tomato Dressing
500g tomatoes, chopped into large chunks
7 tablespoons olive oil
6 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
2 teaspoons white miso
4 fresh bay leaves
18 cardamom pods, roughly crushed in a mortar and pestle
½ teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lime juice
a few grinds of black pepper

For the Cucumbers
800g cucumbers (you could instead use slim courgettes, or a mixture of both)
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
a few grinds of black pepper
1 ball buffalo mozzarella (about 125g), roughly torn
about 8g coriander leaves and soft stems, roughly chopped

Method
Start with the dressing: put the tomatoes, oil, garlic, miso, bay leaves, crushed cardamom pods and seeds, paprika, and salt in a large (lidded) sauté pan. Place over medium-high heat, give everything a good stir and heat, uncovered, until it starts to bubble gently.

Once the dressing is bubbling, turn the heat down to medium-low, cover with the lid and cook gently for 15 minutes, stirring once, until the tomatoes have burst and start to release their juices. Turn down the heat if necessary; you want the garlic to soften without taking on colour, and you don’t want the tomatoes to disintegrate completely. Remove from the heat, stir in the lime juice, season to taste with pepper, and set aside.

Now prepare the cucumbers (or courgettes): halve the cucumbers (or courgettes) lengthwise and then halve each of these pieces lengthwise, to make four long cucumber wedges. You need these to fit into your griddle pan, so cut them in width-wise if necessary, to make shorter lengths. Put the vegetables into a bowl and toss with the oil, salt, and a good grind of pepper.

Heat a grill pan over high, and open a window. This might get a bit smoky.

When the grill pan is very hot, grill the cucumbers (or courgettes) in batches, cut sides down, for 2 to 3 minutes, then flip them over and grill for 1 to 2 minutes more. You want nice grill marks and for the cucumbers to soften but still retain a bite. Courgettes will take a little longer. As they become ready, transfer to the tomato pan, stirring to coat in the dressing.

Once all the veg have been grilled, stir the coriander into the pan and transfer the mixture to a large serving platter. Sprinkle on the torn mozzarella, along with a good pinch of salt, and serve hot or at room temperature.

Recipe adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi in New York Times Cooking

My grandmother used to make refrigerator pickles, which (as the name implies) need to be stored in the fridge. Here is an easy recipe for converting an abundance of courgettes into crisp, dilly pickles to have alongside your sandwich or in a burger.

Refrigerator Courgette Pickles

Ingredients

For the Pickles

3 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
1½ teaspoons black peppercorns
1½ teaspoons mustard seed
6 sprigs of fresh dill
700g courgettes

For the Brine

500ml water
250ml white vinegar
4 tablespoons sugar (I used muscovado)
2 tablespoons coarse sea salt

Method

Sterilise the jars in which you intend to store the pickles by pouring boiling water over them; you’ll need about 4 normal-sized jam jars or the equivalent. (See note below, as well.)

Divide the garlic, peppercorns, mustard seed and dill between them.

Wash, top and tail the courgettes. Slice into circles or spears, as you prefer, and pack neatly into the jars. Leave a bit of space at the top of each jar, so the courgettes can be covered completely in the brine.

Heat the brine ingredients over medium-high heat in a saucepan and boil until the sugar and salt dissolve.

Carefully pour the brine into your jars, put on the lids, and let cool to room temperature. (See note below, as well.)

Give the jars a good shake to distribute the spices and then store in the fridge for at least 24 hours before eating. They should last for some weeks.

NOTE: If the courgettes float to the surface you might want to weigh them down with something, to ensure they remain submerged in the brine, e.g. a smaller jam jar, ramekin dish etc. Make sure you sterilize these, too, with boiling water.

Recipe adapted from Valerie Brunmeier, Valerie’s Kitchen (2017)

My lovely sister in law Sue served this when we visited her this weekend, along with couscous and labneh (thickened yoghurt). It’s fresh, light and vibrant with the green chermoula, a flavoursome blend of fresh coriander, cumin, smoked paprika and lemon.

The recipe makes more chermoula than you’ll need for the recipe, but it’s very tasty and can be used on other vegetables; try it on boiled potatoes, or roasted carrots. It would probably also be delicious on a little escalope of grilled pork.

Courgettes, Sweetcorn and Green Chermoula
Serves 2-3 as a main

Ingredients
4 courgettes, topped and tailed
salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 ears of sweetcorn, outer leaves and ‘silk’ removed
squeeze of lemon juice
for the chermoula
10g garlic
15g red fresh chiles
1 preserved lemon
200g fresh coriander, roughly chopped
150ml rapeseed oil
10g ground cumin
4g smoked paprika
about 15ml lemon juice
salt to taste

Preparation
Slice the courgettes lengthwise and sprinkle with salt. Leave them 30 minutes in a colander to draw out the moisture. This will make the final dish more crunchy and fresh tasting.

While the courgettes are salting, make the chermoula: combine together the garlic, chile and preserved lemon in a blender or other blending device. Once it’s reduced to a paste add the coriander, oil and spices, and blend until smooth. Season to taste with the lemon juice and salt, and set aside.

When the courgettes have had their thirty minutes, brush off the salt and drizzle 1 tablespoon of the oil over the courgettes and sweetcorn.

Heat a griddle plan on high heat. When it’s hot grill the whole ears of corn, turning them regularly, until they are slightly charred on all sides. Remove and set aside.

Place as many courgettes as will fit without crowding in the pan, and cook for about 5 minutes, or until slightly charred on the bottom. Flip over, and cook for 2 minutes on the other side, or until cooked through but retaining some bite. Remove and set aside, and cook the other courgettes, if necessary.

Shave off the kernels off the now-slightly-cooled sweetcorn: hold each cob upright and use a sharp knife to slice down its length to remove the individual kernels. Place the kernels in a mixing bowl. Chop the courgettes into 2cm chunks and add them to the bowl. Toss with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive and a squeeze of lemon juice.

To serve, place some of the sauce on the bottom of a serving plate and top with the courgettes and grilled corn.

Recipe adapted from the Observer Food Monthly, 25 July 2021.

This week’s recipe is a bit of a weird one. I haven’t tried it yet, but the celery gin cocktail that I shared last summer became a firm favourite in our house so hopefully this will be the same!

Courgette Martini

Ingredients
1 courgette , coarsely grated
juice 2 lemons
2 tbsp caster sugar
25ml vermouth
50ml gin
ice
mint leaf to garnish

Method
Mix the courgette with the lemon juice and sugar and leave to steep for 1 hr. In the meantime, place a martini glass in the fridge to chill.

Strain the courgette mixture through a sieve into a jug. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice then add 25ml of the courgette syrup followed by the vermouth and gin. Stir gently a few times then strain into your chilled glass. Garnish with a mint leaf and serve.

From BBC Good Food

‘A zucchini and a steak may not have much in common, but, like steak, zucchini takes incredibly well to the method of quickly searing in a smoking hot pan’. So states Lidey Heuck in the New York Times, and she’s right. In this easy recipe courgettes are cooked fast to develop an appetising char, and then basted with butter, garlic and rosemary. We ate these topped with ricotta, alongside a tomato salad and some good bread.

Pan-Seared Courgettes
Serves 2-3

Ingredients
3 small courgettes (6 to 8 inches each)
1 tablespoon grapeseed, safflower or other high-heat cooking oil
salt and pepper
1½ tablespoons unsalted butter, or more to taste
1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
1-2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
To garnish:
coarse sea salt
lemon zest
red-pepper flakes

Preparation
Trim the ends off the courgettes and cut them lengthwise into planks about ½-inch thick. Pat them dry, pressing gently but firmly on both sides to absorb any moisture.

Heat a large (12-inch) cast-iron or stainless-steel skillet over medium-high. If you have a ridged pan this is a good opportunity to use it. Add the oil and heat until it’s almost smoking.

Add the courgettes to the pan and press lightly with a spatula so that the planks make contact with the pan. Don’t crowd them—if you do they will steam rather than sear.

Sprinkle the tops with salt and pepper, and cook for about 3 minutes, until the courgettes are nicely charred on the bottom. Lower the heat to medium, flip over the courgettes, and season again with salt and pepper. Cook for 2 to 3 more minutes, until the bottoms are charred. 

Turn the heat to low and add the butter, garlic and rosemary. Carefully tilt the pan, letting the garlic and rosemary cook in the butter for 30-60 seconds, until the butter has begun to brown. Spoon the butter over the courgettes, and cook for another minute, flipping them a few times to coat both sides with the butter. 

Transfer the courgettes to a serving platter, along with the garlic and rosemary, and spoon any butter that’s left in the pan on top. Garnish with sea salt, lemon zest and red-pepper flakes, and serve hot.

Recipe adapted from New York Times Cooking

Every summer I treat the first courgette with excitement but as I’m sure is the case for everyone, my enthusiasm begins to wane as the summer goes on. To try and help with this myself and Rebecca have been trying out some more courgette recipes. My favourite so far is courgette fritters (sorry there’s a bit of a fritter theme at the moment!), they made for a reasonably quick work-from-home lunch.

Courgette fritters

Ingredients (8 fritters):
1 kg Courgettes Grated
100 g Feta cheese Crumbled into big chunks
2 Medium free range eggs
2 Cloves Garlic Peeled and crushed
15 g Fresh dill Chopped
15 g Fresh mint Chopped
1 tsp Dried oregano
75 g Plain flour
200 g Breadcrumbs
1/2 Red onion Peeled and finely chopped
Fry light spray or Olive oil for greasing

Method:
Preheat the oven to 220C

Take your grated courgettes and over a colander, squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can. Use the colander and your hands, there will be lots!

When you’ve squeezed out the liquid, put all of your courgette fritter ingredients into a large bowl and mix well with clean hands.

Shape into 8 patties and put onto a greased (or sprayed using Fry Light) baking sheet. I got the strongest shapes by compacting a firm ball and then squash down into a disc

Bake for about 30 minutes of until browned, firm and cooked through (I fried them instead to speed things up)

From: https://www.tamingtwins.com/courgette-fritters-recipe/

This week’s recipe is from Matt. He says: ‘This is really simple but very tasty way of cooking courgettes to their best’. It’s based on a classic Italian pasta dish called caccio e pepe, in which the pasta is dressed with grated cheese and lots of black pepper. That combination turns out to work equally well on courgettes.

This dish is delicious served with sausages, or some grains tossed with pesto, which, incidentally, is a further good use of the bountiful crop of basil we’re currently enjoying from Canalside.

Seared Courgettes with Black Pepper and Cheese
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
700g courgettes
3 tablespoons oil
Salt
2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
4 tablespoons butter, cut into 4 pieces
50g hard cheese, grated
Handful of basil and/or mint leaves, torn into pieces

Preparation
Halve the courgettes lengthwise. If they are large, cut them into lengthwise quarters. Cut each length into 5-7cm sections. Sprinkle them with salt.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy frying pan for 2 minutes over medium-high heat. This will help you get a good sear on the courgettes. Once the oil shimmers, begin to sear the courgettes. You will need to do this in several batches so as not to crowd the pan—they need to be in a single layer. In batches, lay them cut side down in the hot oil and leave them undisturbed for 2-3 minutes, or until they begin to turn golden brown. Flip them over and cook for another 2-3 minutes on the other side, ensuring all sides are seared and golden brown. Remove them from the pan, setting them aside on a serving platter, and repeat with the remaining courgettes.

While the final batch cooks, add the pepper to a small saucepan and toast over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes, or until it becomes fragrant. Add the butter, which will quickly start to foam. Stir until the butter is melted and the foam subsides. Remove from the heat and quickly add the grated cheese. Stir vigorously, so the cheese doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan. It will begin to melt, but will also cling together in pieces, which is the result you want.

Spoon the butter over the seared courgettes, making sure to include all the black pepper and melted cheese. Scatter the herbs over the top and serve.

Recipe adapted from NYT Cooking

Text and photo from: https://www.cuisinefiend.com/242/courgette-and-spinach-tian

What’s a tian? In spite of sounding rather middle-Eastern or even oriental, it’s a Provençal pan made of clay, enamelled in bright colours, which they use to cook vegetable gratins in. Or, indeed, tian, as it’s also the name of the dish.

They sell tian pottery at the markets all over Provence and you can hardly pass by the stalls without stopping to admire the vivid colours, the glaze and the various shapes. If pottery wasn’t fragile and rather heavy, I’d have a collection brought over from my French voyages… As it is I need to use boring mass-produced vessels to cook my tians et al in.

They come in all sorts, being basically roasted vegetables with cheese. Rice is a common ingredient, sometimes potatoes, and spinach is a veritable tian king. Eggs are frequently added but I skipped them here, aiming for a less quiche-y flavour. And make a note of the courgette treatment – that’s how this boring vegetable needs to be handled. Squeeze the living daylights out of it and it might just be vaguely tasty.

Courgette and Spinach Tian

INGREDIENTS
1 large courgette
200g fresh or frozen spinach (thawed)
2 tsp sea salt
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 spring onions, chopped
a handful of pine nuts
60ml double cream
1 egg yolk
30g grated hard cheese, Gruyere or Cheddar
20g grated Parmesan
a little olive oil

METHOD

1. Wash, top and tail the courgette and cut it into ribbons or noodles on a mandolin or in a spiralizer. Sprinkle with salt, stir it around and place in a colander for at least 10 minutes. After that time rinse it with cold water, squeeze out as much moisture as you can without squashing the courgette, and pat dry with paper towels.
2. Rinse the spinach, if using fresh, and wilt it in a microwave or blanch briefly in boiling water. When cool, squeeze out the liquid and chop finely.
3. Mix the cream with the egg yolk and add the hard cheese. In a bowl mix the courgette with spinach, pine nuts, garlic and spring onions and most of the Parmesan. Pour over the cream mixture and stir through.
4. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/gas 7.
5. Drizzle a little olive oil in the bottom of a tian or gratin dish, transfer the vegetables into it and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan. Bake for 20 minutes until brown and bubbling. Best serve very warm, instead of piping hot.

From https://www.cuisinefiend.com/242/courgette-and-spinach-tian

I picked up this recipe whilst living in Gothenburg and it has great connotations for me with sunny breakfasts on the pier… Hopefully I don’t just see it with rose tinted glasses!

Vegan chickpea flour (kikärtsmjöl) omelette
Ingredients

1 cup (120 g) chickpea flour
1 Tablespoon flaxseed meal or chia seed meal (optional)
1/2 tsp (0.5 tsp) salt
1/4 tsp (0.25 tsp) each of turmeric garlic powder, baking soda, cumin powder
1ish cup of water

Fillings!
Fried tomato, onion, mushrooms, lots coming in our shares that could suit!

Method is simple, mix the all the dry ingredients then add the water slowly and mix with a whisk until they take on the same consistency as whisked eggs. Fry up the fillings, then poor on the omelette mix and reduce pan to a medium to low heat. Make sure you cook it slower and longer than an egg omelette – it tends to burn before solidifying enough to flip if you rush it.