🥒 Glut busting: Four-ish handy courgette recipes 🥒
When growing your own it is inevitable that you'll end up with gluts.
One of the most infamous vegetables for this the humble courgette. There are jokes every year of gardeners leaving baskets of courgettes at their neighbours doorsteps and in cars with open windows as nobody wants to accept anymore courgettes. So what to do with all this fantastic food?
Eat it.
Crustless Quiche
This recipe is fairly simple and can be served along side a variety of other dishes or eaten alone with some salad for a nice lunch or small dinner. I’ve gone crustless for this quiche.
Ingredients
Courgettes 1kg
Flour* 25g
Milk* 400ml
Butter* 25g
Cheese 80g + extra for the top
This will yield 2 8 inch quiches
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C
Slice the courgette, using a mandolin might make this easier but watch your fingers!
Salt the slices, and allow them to drain for 30 minutes, courgettes have a lot of water and can make your quiche really soggy if you skip this step.
Lightly fry, or oven bake your courgette discs. This will remove some more moisture and add a little colour to them.
Meanwhile, make a roux by heating butter and flour together until once the butter flour has reached X then start adding in the milk add in slowly whisk until combined and smooth add the cheese and mix through until melted and combined
Lightly oil and line a baking tin of your choice layer the courgettes and add the sauce as you go top with sauce and an extra sprinkle of cheese
Place in to the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes, until nicely browned.
*You can use free from for any or all of these. I haven’t tried replacing the cheese, if needed then I would replace with a few tablespoons of nutritional yeast and a decorative sprinkling of not-cheese on the top
Stuffed Courgette كوسا محشي
Ingredients
400g beef
200-300g rice
Cumin 2 tsps
Turmeric 1 tsp
Salt 2 tsp
Pepper 2 tsp
Cinnamon 1/2 tsp
Coriander 1/2 tsp
Cardamom 1/2 tsp
Nutmeg .25 (decent pinch
Olive oil 3 tbsp
Tomato Passata 500ml
Method
Take your courgettes and core them, this is easily done with an apple corer but can also be achieved with a butter knife and some practice. Try not to pierce through the skin of the courgette, it isn’t life or death but it can lead to uneven cooking. Set the courgette core aside (separate recipe).
Take the remaining ingredients minus the tomato passata and add them together in a large bowl and mix.
Add the mixture to the courgettes, lightly tapping the bottom of the courgette to settle the mixture. Stuff approximately two thirds of the way, don’t over stuff or the inside will not cook and the courgette might explode in the pan.
Add the stuffed courgettes in to your pan and cover with tomato passata.
Cook on a low heat x
Bonus mini recipe
Take all the scooped out courgette guts
2-3 garlic cloves*
1 tsp turmeric
Olive oil
Add to a saucepan and cook down, aiming to cook the courgette and reduce the water content until it reaches a nice thick consistency similar to mash potato.
Serve along with the stuffed courgettes or as filling or dip in its own right. I quite like it in buckwheat crêpes (galettes) with some hot chilli flakes.
*Use garlic oil for low FODMAP
Courgette cake / Zucchini Bread
(it isn’t bread America, be real)
Ingredients
Eggs 2
Almond flour 150g
GF flour 75g
Sugar 125g
Oil 100ml
Courgette 200g
Baking Powder 1 tsp
Zest of half an orange
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C
Grate the courgette and place in a clean tea towel, wring out as much moisture as you can and place the the courgette to drain whilst preparing the other ingredients.
Beat together eggs and sugar until light and foamy and slowly drizzle in the oil and beat for a further 2 minutes.
Mix together dry ingredients and the orange zest and add to the wet ingredients, mix until fully incorporated.
Add in the courgette and fully mix, then add to a lined loaf tin
Bake for 25-35 minutes, until the cake has turned golden brown and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
For an extra orange kick use the juice from the orange you zested with some icing sugar to create a glaze and apply when the cake is still warm.
Zoodles/courgetti
Make a great low calorie and low carb noodle replacement for pasta and stir fry meals.
You can get fancy with a spiralizer…
Or you can use a julienne peeler (or finely slice)
One of my favourite dishes is zoodles + whatever leftover protein I have + finely grated parmesan for a nice filling lunch
FODMAPs
Courgettes are low FODMAPs (fructans are the predominant FODMAP in courgettes), in up to 65g portion of courgette.
If you are in the elimination stage of the low FODMAP diet, consider using lactose free milk, and an aged or lactose free cheese along with a gluten free flour.
