Call it courgette, call it zucchini; there must be 50 ways to use your squashes
My homage to Paul Simon, folks. This blog post does not have 50 recipes for your courgettes (neither does the song list the 50 ways) but it should help you use your produce.
What is it about courgettes that make them so prolific? They must be hardy enough to resist ambivalent (and lazy) gardeners (like me). My first year, I put in six, yes six courgette plants. OMG – did we have a lot of courgettes. Now I plant three. Some bit of ancient vegetable growing wisdom I have retained says three is the minimum number for pollination purposes. Even three produce a lot of courgettes most years.
I really hate to throw away food I grew myself. I have therefore accumulated a number of ways to prepare, preserve and eat courgettes.
Here’s my round up of ideas and some specific recipes to make eating courgettes a joy not a chore. Hopefully, something for everyone. All of these recipes I’ve test cooked and the Davinator has eaten.
- KISS – keep it simple, spiralize. A spiralizer (many choices for less than £10 on Amazon) turns your vegetables into noodles. Sautéed in butter, added to soups, salads and stir fry. Cover them with your favourite pasta sauce. This is super use of the squash, especially when you harvest early and don’t let them turn into seed filled giants.
- Just eat your vegetables. Slice into 5 millimetre pieces, then chop in half. Cook in boiling water or steam for 2 to 5 minutes depending on size and your preferences on the texture of your vegetables. Alternatively, cut 1 inch slices and quarter these. Sauté in butter with a few chilli flakes and salt and peppel. Divine.
- Get your revenge in first. Make fried-courgette flowers. Pick the flowers on stems (will never be courgettes) or small courgettes when the flowers are still attached. You can either fry the flowers with the small courgettes attached or separate them and cook them separately. Recipe link here: <fried courgette blossoms>
- Use your weapon of mass consumption. There’s nothing like chutney to use up large and diverse amounts of fruit and vegetables. Sugar, vinegar, spices, onions and then a squash, a vegetable and a fruit component. Here’s my recipe – <courgette chutney>.
- Do it doughnut style. Baked chocolate courgette doughnuts are about the healthiest doughnuts you can make and eat. Of course, ‘healthiest’ doughnuts maybe a low bar but this recipe produces crowd pleasing treats – <chocolate courgette doughnuts>.
- Put summer in a jar. Courgette marmalade with ginger and lemon tastes like summer when you open it in November or gift it to good friends at Christmas time. This is not a recipe for newbies to making jam and marmalade but if you’re not intimidated by boiling sugar go for it. Link here: <spiced courgette marmalade>.
- Hide the vegetables by burying them in deep dark chocolate cake. It’s all in the name. This is a favourite of family, friends and co-workers. So rich, it doesn’t need any icing or topping but you can go wild and slather it in whipped cream. Link here. <deep dark chocolate cake>.
- Pixar it up. One of my favourite Pixar movies is Ratatouille. And you don’t have to be a Parisian rat to make awesome ratatouille. Most cooks have a favourite recipe but ratatouille is very flexible. The core ingredients are courgette, aubergine, tomatoes and peppers. Here’s a basic recipe that uses canned tomatoes but if you’ve got a glut go ahead and use them. I would peel and core the tomatoes if you’re using fresh. Link here: easy and flexible ratatouille.
- Quickly now. Make quick whole wheat courgette bread. It’s simple and quick and makes a good on the go breakfast treat. Link here: <whole wheat courgette bread>.
- Round up……. Time to use your imagination and Google: courgette fritters, courgette terrine, courgette soup, tomato courgette spaghetti sauce. Frittata with courgettes is one of my favourites. Link here: < frittata with courgettes>
- Soup it up. Here’s the best courgette soup recipe I’ve found.
- Get grilling. This is my new favourite grilled vegetable recipe.
- Courgette and herb pilaf, you’ll never notice the courgettes.
Hopefully, these recipes will help you mop up the courgette tsunami and dig out from under the zucchini avalanche. Thank you for reading the blog. Please send comments, suggestions and requests.
2 thoughts on “Call it courgette, call it zucchini; there must be 50 ways to use your squashes”
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I think you forgot Stuffed Zucchini Boats, an all time Bridgeport favorite. Make stuffing for Stuffed Cabbage Rolls only put in a zuchinni sliced length wise, open face, with optional cheese.
I left out the Stuffed Zucchini Boats on purpose, so ‘excluded’ rather than ‘forgotten’. One of my food dislikes is ground meat filling in any vegetable. I trace this back to my loathing of meat loaf as a child. I tried them once on the Davinator (that omnivore) and they were not a hit.