What do with a courgette (zucchini for those from across the pond and some bits of Europe)?

My Slimming World consultant set us all the challenge of sharing our best recipes using courgette.

Now I use Courgette regularly but must be honest and say I do tend to use it in the same old ways and my sons certainly spurn it when offered. It was clearly time to use any generic search engine ( yes, I know , it was Google. What can I say?) to find some more creative uses.

Many if the options were on a theme of grilled, kebabs etc. There were some interesting stuffed options but I finally settled on a fritter option.

Credit should always be given to the source, even with a little adaptation on my part. This came from Host The Toast – A Kitchen Kapers Blog.

Now before we get into the details a little detail of what the making really involved. Firstly you do need some time so this is not one for an evening after a busy day at work. However it can all be prepared before hand and can be reheated.

My youngest son, Reuben, came in mid cook to find out what was for tea. He is quite Yorkshire in his taste and doesn’t like anything too new-fangled and turned his nose up at the thought of vegetarian pulled chicken. I did persuade him to try a spoonful and the initial snarl became “That’s alright actually’ and so defrosting chicken was returned to the fridge and my life became a little easier.

He returned later responding to the very loud smoke detector alarm that insists on going off even when windows are open, extractor fan is on and the front door is open but I dare cook something that produces a little cloud. On hearing the list of ingredients he curled his lip, but then followed this with ‘Well what do they taste like?’ After a quick sample however, he decided he liked them although he would prefer more cheese.

If a truculent 18 year old can get over the list of ingredients why not give this a go.

So here we go with Courgette, Spinach and Feta Fritters with Pulled Jerk Vegtarian Chicken and Yoghurt (with some extra bits).

Fritter Ingredients:

• 2 courgettes (grated)
• 3 handfuls of spinach (chopped).
• A small pile of Basil (chopped finely)
• Another small pile, Dill this time (chopped finely)
• And there is another pile, Mint this time (chopped finely)
• 3 spring onions (chopped finely)
• 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped/crushed).
• 90g feta cheese (crumbled)
• 3 eggs (beaten)
• 75g of plain flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Seasoning to your taste
• Low calorie spray oil for cooking

Vegetarian Pulled Jerk Chicken Ingredients

• 300g Linda McCartney Vegetarian Pulled Chicken
• One red pepper (sliced)
• One red onion (halved and sliced)
• One large red chilli (deseeded and sliced)
• 400ml Passata
• A spoof he of tomato purée
• A good sprinkling of jerk seasoning (for your taste buds)
• Low calorie spray oil for cooking

Lazy Tzatziki Ingredients:

• No fat natural or Greek yoghurt (half fill a small bowl)
• Mint (tsp dried or handful fresh chopped finely )
• Lemon juice (a good glug to your taste)
• Low calorie garlic spray oil

Method:

• Put the grated courgette in a sieve, sprinkle with salt and leave for ten minutes.
• Hand squeeze the courgette over a bowl to get rid of as much water as possible.
• Mix together all the ‘leaves’, spring onions , garlic and courgette.
• Add the crumbled feta and mix in well.
• Stir in the beaten egg.
• Add flour and baking powder, stirring small sprinkles at a time.
• Put to one side.

Making the Tzatziki. This should have included cucumber, garlic and olive oil etc but I hit a lazy point here, Therefore I haven’t used cucumber and I replaced garlic and olive oil with a few squirts of low calorie garlic oil spray. You can off course choose to use real garlic and olive oil as well as the cucumber.

• Mix all the ingredients together.
• Put in the fridge to chill.

Now it’s time to make the Jerk Chicken.

• Spray a large frying pan or wok with your low calorie spray oil of choice and cook until softened.
• Add the vegetarian pulled chicken (still frozen) and stir in, also until softened.
• Sprinkle on the jerk seasoning stir in.
• Add the sliced peppers and cook until starting to soften.
• Stir in the Passata and tomato purée , cook for twenty minutes and then turn down to a low heat to simmer.
• Season to your taste.

Fritter Cooking Time.

• Spray a large frying pan with spray oil.
• Dollop 3 large spoonfuls to make three Fritters.
• Cook for two or three minutes on each side.
• Remove to a warm dish and then cook another batch of three.
• Repeat until the mix is finished.