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Courgettes
Best home grown from mid-June to October
Courgettes are baby marrows, and don’t I know it! I used to grow them, but if I wasn’t vigilant about picking them every day in season they seemed to turn into marrows overnight – and marrow for supper night after night is not a good idea! Now I would rather buy them small and tender. Courgettes are a delicate vegetable, with not a great deal of their own flavour, and like aubergines they have a high water content that can render them watery and dull. I like them chunkily cut and roasted in the oven, as in Oven-Roasted Ratatouille, or marinated in a vinaigrette with herbs, which allows them to absorb some real flavour.
Serves 4Marinated Courgettes with a Herb Vinaigrette
If you grow courgettes then this recipe is superb for serving the ones that – if you don't keep a sharp eye on them – become baby marrows overnight. If you don't, then this is still a superb way to serve courgettes as a salad with cold cuts.
Serves 4Ratatouille
This famous Provençal vegetable stew is best made in the autumn when the vegetables needed for it are cheap and plentiful. This can be a most attractive dish but not if it ends up mushy. So to avoid this, make sure you don't cut up the vegetables too
Serves 4Courgette Souffle
This makes a filling and enjoyable meal for 4 from a few cheap ingredients - even more so if you grow your own courgettes and have a glut to use up. Add fresh herbs, eggs and parmesan-style cheese for a wonderful vegetarian recipe.
Serves 6-8Thick Country Soup
Vegetarians and meat-eaters alike will love this really thick soup crammed with beans, rice and a host of wintry veg. All you need is some good bread and cheese to go with it…
Serves 8Eliza Acton's Vegetable Mulligatawny
Mulligatawny was highly fashionable in Victorian times and, indeed, this recipe was influenced by Eliza Acton, one of that era's most prolific cookery writers. Spicy, warming and vegetarian, it's a real classic.
