I go through phases of cooking one vegetable over and over again in different ways. Slightly obsessed with courgettes right now. While they can be watery if left to grow too large into marrows, courgettes (or zucchini as American and Italians call them), are cheap, healthy and fresh-tasting.
At West Hampstead Farmer’s Market this weekend I found courgette flowers. Not cheap mind, four for £2.50. I stuffed them with goat’s cheese and served them on fresh black pasta. This is a high-end dinner party dish that looks spectacular but isn’t hard to make. If possible get the male flowers which are bigger. The female flowers have a phallic courgette attached. Do open the flower up before stuffing as you may find the odd insect lurking within.
A more quotidian use of courgettes is simply to slice them and shallow fry gently in olive oil, garlic and a little white wine. I add tarragon, for hints of liquorice and anise, from my favourite Kilburn shop Where 2 Save, a tiny corner emporium bulging with interesting foods from all over the world. The vegan selection is good too.
I’ve also given you a vegetarian version of a Romanian recipe from a cookbook ‘Carpathia’ that came out last year, by Irina Georgescu . Here the courgettes are stuffed and served in soup.
I’ve been visiting Portobello road market on Fridays this past few weeks and have amassed quite a collection of plates and other items such as clothes. I picture my weekly haul on Instagram.
They have an excellent street food market where Iraqi cook Ahlam (in fact the Duchess of Sussex is pictured serving her rice on the cover of the Hubb community/Grenfell cookbook)makes her green rice. This is typically an Iranian dish but she says ‘the difference is that in Iraq we put a lot of garlic in’. Make it on its own or use it to stuff courgettes. 
Courgettes stuffed with Iranian green rice
Ingredients
For the stuffed courgettes:
- 3 courgettes, cut into thirds, cored.
For the green rice:
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 3 shallots, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 150 g basmati rice, steamed with a little sea salt in the water
- 300g broad beans, double podded (can be frozen)
- 300g frozen peas (optional)
- bunch fresh dill, finely chopped
- salt and pepper
- 50 g butter
Instructions
- Prep the courgettes, steam the rice, double pod the broad beans etc so everything is ready
- Preheat the oven to 180C
- Heat the olive oil in a wide frying pan
- Soften the shallots, then add the garlic
- Add the cooked rice, the dill, broad beans, peas, salt, pepper. Stir and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes.
- Add a big knob of butter.
- Using a shallow baking dish, stuff the courgettes using a teaspoon. Cover with foil until the last 5 minutes Scatter the rest of the rice around the dish and bake for 30 minutes at 180C.
Romanian soup with stuffed courgettes (Ciorba)
Ingredients
For the stuffed courgettes
- 4 courgettes, cut into 5cm chunks and hollowed out, reserve insides for stuffing
For the stuffing
- 300 g smoked quinoa or rice, I used Hodmedods or any quinoa
- 600 ml water
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 50 g butter
- 250 g button mushrooms, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 glass white wine, optional
- 2 preserved lemons, pips removed, finely chopped
For the broth
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 6 cherry tomatoes, finely sliced
- 1 tsp sea salt
To serve:
- 100 ml Greek yoghurt
- bunch fresh mint leaves to decorate
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C
For the stuffing
- Add the quinoa, water and salt to a medium saucepan and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer until cooked and fluffy. The water should be absorbed (if not then drain).
- In a frying pan, heat the butter and oil and add the mushrooms and garlic and fry until light golden.
- Add the leftover courgette interiors, preserved lemon and white wine. Then stir in the cooked quinoa.
- Stuff the courgettes with the mixture, packing it in fairly tightly. Set aside.
For the broth
- In a medium saucepan, add all the ingredients and simmer.
To assemble
- Pour the broth into a medium oven dish. Place the stuffed courgettes in the broth and cover the dish with foil. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until the courgettes are cooked but not mushy.
- Serve 3 pieces of courgette for each person with a generous ladle of broth.
- Add dollops of yoghurt and a few mint leaves
Courgette flowers stuffed with goat cheese on black pasta
Ingredients
- 8 courgette flowers
- 100g goat's cheese
- Olive oil
- salt and pepper
For the pasta:
- 500 g fresh black pasta, cooked in salted water
Instructions
- Prise open each courgette flower to see if you have any 'visitors'.
- Add a large teaspoon of goat's cheese into each flower and twist the end of the flower closed. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Heat up olive oil in a wide frying pan
- Carefully add the pasta flowers (you may have to do this in two batches) to the pan and fry gently. Turning over once it's slightly golden and frying the other side,.
- Cook the fresh pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water. Once the pasta floats, it's cooked. Then drain. Add olive oil
- Heap the pasta into a bowl and top with the courgette flowers, 2 per person.
Tarragon courgettes
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 courgettes, sliced
- Bunch tarragon, strip the leaves from the stalk
- glass white wine
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a wide saucepan, add the garlic and courgettes. Stir while cooking until soft.
- Add the tarragon and stir.
- Add the white wine and seasoning.
- Serve hot.
All gardeners experience a courgette glut so all these recipe are very useful .