Courgette and Feta Fritters

Another courgette recipe; you can tell they’re doing well in the garden this year! That's one of the things I love about ‘growing-your-own’ –  when everything starts to come to fruition at once you have to find ways of using it. Good job we love ‘em!

If you have as many courgettes as me you can freeze them; just chop them into largish chunks and pack into a Tupperware box before freezing. They’ll collapse somewhat when they’re defrosted, so I wouldn’t attempt making these fritters with them, but they’ll be perfectly OK for either of the soups I’ve posted recently.

I like fritters, they’re great hot and fresh with some new potatoes or wedges and a salad, but if you have a couple left over I can recommend them for lunch next day in a soft flour tortilla with a dollop of sour cream and some leafage with a few olives on the side. Delish!

400gm Courgettes
1 heaped tbsp plain flour
2 eggs, beaten
1tbsp finely chopped fresh herbs (thyme and chives are nice)
Grated zest of one lemon
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 shallot, peeled and finely chopped
100gms feta, crumbled into small pieces
2tbsps olive oil for frying

Grate the courgettes, salt lightly and leave to drain in a colander for 15 min. Meanwhile put the flour, eggs, shallot, herbs, garlic and lemon zest in a bowl and mix. Place the salted courgettes in the middle of a clean tea-towel then wring out the tea-towel** over the sink until the courgettes are almost dry. Add them to the bowl with the feta and mix well.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add a tablespoon of mixture for each fritter, flatten it out a bit and cook until the underside is golden, then turn and cook the other side. Put on a paper-towel lined plate while you cook the rest of the mixture.

Serve with new potatoes and a salad.

**Your tea-towel will look a bit wrecked, but it’ll be fine after a hot wash!

Italian Vegetable Soup

They've started already; the courgettes are on the march! I wasn't expecting the onslaught quite so soon, but they seem to like the weather we've been having this year.

Every year about this time I start cooking recipes to help me use up the courgette mountain that has arrived in the garden; allotment holders and hobby gardeners across the land will all be very familiar with this same annual scenario.

I use them regularly in two different soups, fritters and a couple of salads; I also add them to roast veg as well as stir-fries and a vegetable tart. Admittedly, after a few weeks we get a bit courgetted-out but I still get a ridiculous sense of pleasure from just wandering outside and picking something that will be on our plates within half an hour. I’m easily pleased.

This soup may just look like a rather speckled tomato soup but the courgettes add a subtle sub-taste whilst the pesto gives it an Italian twist.

1 onion, chopped
1 courgette, sliced
1 400g tin of tomatoes (you can use fresh tomatoes if you prefer)
1 red pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
750 ml veg stock
a heaped tbsp of tomato pesto (I use Sacla Organic)
3 or 4 sprigs of basil

Fry the onion, courgette and pepper in the oil for 5 mins, add the garlic and continue to fry for another 5 mins; add the stock and tomatoes and simmer gently for 15 mins.

Take off the heat, add the basil and the tomato pesto then blend with a stick blender until smooth. Thin with a bit more stock if necessary.

Serve in mugs with plenty of good bread.

Serves 4

Courgette Soup

As you know, I love soup in all its guises; we eat it all year round but I like to vary the type of soup to suit the season. This is a nice summery variety which looks terribly green, worthy and ‘good for you’, but don’t let that put you off. It’s a little stunner and a very worthwhile recipe to have to hand when the garden gives up its usual glut of courgettes in July and August and you're tearing your hair because you don't know what to do with the blasted things!

I wonder why it is I can never grow just enough courgettes; why do I always get snowed under with them? It's one of life's little mysteries...

1 tbsp olive oil

500g courgettes, washed and chopped

1 large floury potato, peeled and chopped

1 medium onion, peeled and chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp thyme leaves

1l vegetable stock (Marigold Bouillon)

1 tbsp chopped parsley

1 tbsp chopped chives

1 tbsp creme fraiche

Saute the courgettes, potatoes, onion, thyme leaves and garlic in the olive oil, without colouring, for 10 mins. Add the stock and simmer until all the vegetables are tender. Blitz with a stick blender until really smooth then stir in the chopped herbs and crème fraiche. Reheat gently and serve hot with a few garlic croutons and lots of crusty bread.

Serves 4 - 6

Roast Stuffed Butternut

In the winter when the weather's cold and miserable I find I always seem to cook the same old, same old, but I'm trying to break out of that rut.

It was blowing a gale out there last night; perfect conditions for having a rummage in the fridge and seeing what I could find to cook up something warming and different.

I love butternut squash, but I usually only use them for soup or chopped into chunks and cooked alongside roast potatoes. I've never used one as the basis of a main meal before, but I certainly will in future!

This recipe is infinitely adaptable; for the stuffing you can use whatever veg you have to hand and, although I used Feta, I suspect it would work equally well with Brie, Camembert or Mozzarella and if you don't have pine nuts, throw in a few chopped cashews or even olives instead.

See, I said it was adaptable.


1 butternut squash
2 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, chopped
6 button mushrooms, halved
1 small courgette
½ small red pepper
2 large shallots, peeled and cut into quarters
2 tomatoes quartered
2 tbsp pine nuts
100g feta, chopped into small chunks
1 tbsp grated parmesan-style cheese

Cut the squash in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds and stringy bits. Drizzle the squash with half the olive oil and put the chopped garlic in the cavities. Roast for 40 minutes at 200C until tender.

Meanwhile, chop the courgette and pepper into smallish chunks, mix with the shallot wedges, mushrooms and remaining olive oil, then roast for 20 minutes. Put the cooked veg in a large bowl, add the tomato quarters, pine nuts and feta chunks; mix well then pile onto the cooked squash halves. Sprinkle with the 'parmesan' and put back in the oven for a further 15 mins.

If you're absolutely ravenous you could serve some garlic bread with this, but to be honest it was very filling on its own.

Serves 2