Category: Loraine Birchall (O)
Courgettes / Zuchini for Summer
July 14th, 2008 , by loraineHi Everyone, I'm sorry I haven't posted recently. Those of you who know me from the Blood Type Diet boards will know I've been battling with two infections, one ovarian and one in the kidneys, and hopefully now thanks to lots of diamond foods, rest and the dreaded antibiotics, I'm on the mend. It's nice to be back.
Although the weather here in the UK hasn't been very sunny, it is courgette season, lovely fresh tasting veggies which always make me feel like summer has arrived. Here's a quick recipe for stuff courgette/zuchini and I like use the yellow courgettes, but you can use either. You could also garnish them with the flowers from the veggies, they add colour, interest and texture to a dish and use to amaze my son that we could eat them. :-)
Ingredients:
1 courgette, sliced in half, lengthways
1 tbsp olive oil, ghee or compliant oil for your BT/GT
½ onion, finely diced
4 cherry tomatoes, halved (or peppers finely chopped, or fennel would be nice)
salt and freshly ground black pepper (if you can eat it)
55g/2oz cottage cheese or parmesan (finely grated) or farmer cheese might do
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. With a clean teaspoon, scoop out the centre of one half of the courgette and chop the remaining half of courgette finely.
3. In a non-stick frying pan, heat the olive oil and add the onion. Sauté the onion until soft but not coloured.
4. Add the chopped courgette and cherry tomatoes (or peppers/fennel etc) to the frying pan and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper (optional).
5. Sauté the vegetables for 3-5 minutes until soft, then remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
6. Transfer the vegetables to a bowl and mix in the cottage cheese (or alternative for your BT/GT, manchego might be nice too) until evenly combined. Fill the cavity of the courgette half with the cheese and vegetable mixture.
7. Place the courgette on a non-stick baking tray and roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the courgette is tender.
8. Serve hot or cold.
This is adapted to BTD or GTD from an original recipe by an English chef Brian Turner, he's a lovely chap, very down to earth, straight talking man from Yorkshire and when you look at him you just know he loves his food. I made this with yellow courgette (zuchini) but it's nice with the green ones, or the round ones too and they are so easy to grow at home.
Here's a link to Brian's website for those who'd like to try some more of his recipes. He's quite a character.

