Things to do with courgettes

As anyone who grows courgettes will know, each year you find yourself with a glut of them on your hands.  If you don’t pick ’em they grow huge so you have to keep picking them even if you don’t particularly want to eat them right now.  So let’s look at some ideas of things to do with them.

• try my courgette salad
• use courgette instead of cucumber in a garden salad (it works pretty well in most salads)
• make courgette tempura – either make your own batter or cheat by using a packet mix
• make a courgette cake – see the raspberry, chocolate and courgette cake on ForForFriendsYeah! A courgette cake may seem a bit odd at first, but no more strange than a carrot cake when you think about it.  I’m keen to give it a try anyway as I always like the recipes on FFFY!
• hollow them out and stuff the insides with rice, veggies, nuts or whatever, drizzle with olive oil and bake in the oven
• pickle them – Channel 4 has a recipe that looks nice and simple
• don’t forget that courgette flowers are delicious stuffed or deep-fried in tempura batter, so pick the flowers before they turn into fruit

So if you have a courgette glut on your hands, I hope these ideas might help you.