Possumology: Courgette & summer squash overload

Courgette is Daniel's favourite veg and butternut squash is mine so it was an easy decision to dedicate 3 big patches of my allotment to courgettes and squashes. I grew scallop squash, pattypan squash, white bush Lebanese summer squash, round zucchini, pumpkin and butternut squash. The latter two are still maturing.

The trouble, of course, is that the summer varieties become ready to pick all at once! There's only so much you can eat and give away. Thankfully, the courgette and squash family provide a wide variety of cooking options including steaming, sautéing, frying, grilling, baking, roasting and stuffing. Wow!

I've tried just about every way there is of preparing them. It's a well known fact that allotment holders end up throwing away surplus veg! If you're one of them, promise me you'll never, ever waste another veg again! Here are some examples of using up your courgette and squash glut.

You can use the flowers in salads. They're pretty and edible. You could also try deep-frying them.

                                               Pattypan squash



                             Pumpkins


Zucchine tonde ripiene (stuffed round zucchini, as if you needed the translation...)

When I cook I loosely work off a recipe and adapt it to what I have available in the cupboards. My cupboards are full of weird and wonderful things. For this recipe I thought I'd use the polenta that's been staring at me for a few months! I am ashamed to admit that before this I haven't cooked with polenta.

Anyway, you'll need:

- round zucchini (courgette), one per person
- an onion
- 3 crushed cloves of garlic
- 4-6 mushrooms
- a handful of sliced asparagus
- a few sun-dried tomatoes
- a handful of pine nuts
- cubed polenta
- salt
- pepper
- chili flakes
- veg stock powder (I use Marigold Swiss vegan bouillon powder)

Put the oven on 180C. Cut the top off the courgette and scoop out the insides (pulp and seeds). Drizzle the inside with chili infused oil and pop in the oven on a roasting tray. Meanwhile, fry the onion and garlic in some olive oil, add the chopped mushrooms, asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, and the pine nuts. Fry for a few minutes then add the polenta, stock powder, chili flakes, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Fry for a few minutes then transfer into the hollowed courgette and pop back in the oven for about 20 minutes. Serve with couscous. For non vegans, 5 minutes before you take it out of the oven crumble some blue cheese on top (try gruyere, gorgonzola or stilton).

Summer squash, saffron and roasted pumpkin seed soup

I love making soups because they're so easy to make and are so satisfying. If you're dieting it's the perfect food. Research shows that liquid-rich foods like soups are good at filling your stomach and are slow to empty, leaving you fuller for longer.

All good soups start with frying a chopped onion, a few crushed cloves of garlic and fresh chili in some olive oil in a large saucepan. Chop your chosen veg, in this case summer squash, and fry until part tender. Courgette and summer squashes are all quite watery so you won't need more oil. Harder squashes like the butternut and pumpkin may need a little more oil.

Add a litre of stock (I use 4 tsps of
Marigold Swiss vegan bouillon powder dissolved in a litre of hot water) or enough to just cover the squash. Add a few threads of saffron and cook until the squash is tender.

Blitz the soup using a stick blender. Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry pan over high heat until they start to brown and pop. Do not burn them! So easily done, trust me. Use to garnish the soup.

Summer squash risotto

I love making risottos. Again, they're quick and easy to make and very filling. This one serves 4 (or two really greedy people).

Again, your base for this is an onion and a few crushed cloves of garlic. Fry them in some oil in a deep frying pan.

Add cubed squash (any summer or winter squash is fine, just not courgette!). 1 large squash will do for 4 people.

Fry until part soft. Add 250g risotto rice and fry for 2 minutes. Add a litre of stock (I use 4 tsps of Marigold Swiss vegan bouillon powder dissolved in a litre of hot water) and a handful of pumpkin seeds.

Cook on medium heat until all the water has been absorbed and the rice is tender. If you're not vegan add 250g gorgonzola (delicious!), if you're vegan add a small carton of soy cream. Cook until well incorporated and serve.

A good trick for getting rid off spare veg is give them to your friends in the hope that they'll make something for you :) One day my friend surprised me with Summer squash stew and Courgette salad. If he ever gives me the recipe for the stew I'll update it on here. It was delicious!

The courgette salad he made is similar to these two:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6339/marinated-courgette-salad-with-pine-nuts-and-parme#

http://www.canbebribedwithfood.com/2010/08/courgette-overload-then-make-grilled.html#

And how about baking with courgette? A few years ago I got a lovely book that uses raw, grated veg in cakes instead of fat. All the recipes I tried in this book are absolutely sublime apart from Parsnip vanilla fudge.

Many of the recipes use eggs but I've managed to veganise them. The one that works particularly well as a vegan veg cake is the Cherry and Almond cake. I just use Ener-G egg replacer and it works a treat :)

Here's the veganised recipe:

You'll need two 18cm-diameter x 5cm deep sandwich tins, greased and lined

250g glace cherries

3 Ener-G egg replacers (if you're not vegan just use 3 eggs)

180g caster sugar
200g finely grated potato
100g plain flour, plus 2 extra tbsp to coat cherries
1 tsp almond extract
100g ground almonds
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
finely grated zest of 1/2 unwaxed lemon
250g cherry jam
20g of toasted almond flakes
1 tsp icing sugar
small sprinkle of ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Cut the cherries in half and coat in 2 tbsp flour.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the egg replacer with the sugar for 5 mins until pale and light.

Next, beat in the grated potato until well combined. Finally, add the flour, ground almonds, almond extract, baking powder, salt and lemon zest until well incorporated.

Divide the mixture between the two sandwich tins and gently place the cherries on top of each cake so that they are slightly sunken into the mixture. Place them in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes.

Once cooked, remove the cakes from the oven and transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool for 10 mins. Gently peel away the baking parchment.

Toast the flaked almonds until just golden in a dry pan. Spread a generous layer of cherry jam onto one half of the cake. Put the other half of cake on top, sprinkle with the flaked almonds a dusting of the icing sugar and cinnamon mixed together.

The same book has many, many recipes using courgettes. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to expand their baking repertoire.

You could also try these two: