Courgettes, Courgettes, Courgettes

My courgette plants seem to have taken over my little veg patch! The lettuces just peek out from underneath enormous leaves and the beans at the back, whilst producing seem rather anaemic due to the lack of light. I think we have had a good combination of sunny days and rain this year, which has done wonders for my plants.

But I really wasn't expecting quite such big plants and they all have lots of courgettes on them. Now I don't mind courgettes every so often, but everyday and I'll get so bored of them I'll never want to eat one again. So I've been trawling the Internet and my cookbooks for freezable courgette recipes, and I have to say there actually aren't that many beyond soup, probably due to the high water content in courgettes which makes them difficult to freeze.

So that's what my first freezer courgette recipe was, Courgette and Watercress Soup. However even the recipe suggests that just reheating this will change its colour, but I have frozen it so we shall wait and see!

Courgette and Watercress Soup (from Leiths Vegetarian Bible)

(Serves 4-6)

2 tbsp olive oil

900g courgettes

1 onion, sliced

1 leek, trimmed and sliced

salt and pepper

1.1 ltrs vegetable stock

85g watercress

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the courgette, onion and leek. Season with salt and pepper, cover and cook over a low heat for 5-8 mins until soft.

Add the stock and bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer gently for 10-15 mins.

Add the watercress to the hot soup. Cook for a further 2-3 mins, then puree in a food processor or blender and adjust the seasoning to taste.

The second courgette recipe that I went for was Courgette, Cheddar and Sage Pasties. I love pasties, I recently made some more spinach and feta pasties, they are such an easy thing to keep in the freezer and just put into the oven, leave for 20 minutes to reheat and there's dinner. I'm not sure again how well these will freeze but hopefully the pastry will afford some protection.

The original recipe called for Parmesan, but I don't like Parmesan as the dominant taste in food, so I used cheddar instead. It also used wholewheat shortcrust pastry but I didn't have time to make pastry that day so I got out my trusty roll of puff pastry from the freezer and used that. These were really simple to make. Saute the filling ingredients and then assemble and bake, what could be easier!

Courgette, Cheddar and Sage Pasties (adapted from Leiths Vegetarian Bible)

(Makes 6)

3 sheets of ready rolled puff pastry

For the filling

1 tbsp oil

1 onion, very finely chopped

1 medium potato, cut in 1/4in dice

2-3 tbsp vegetable stock or water

225g courgettes, trimmed and cut into 1/4in dice

12 fresh sage leaves, shredded

salt and pepper

110g cheddar cheese grated

Preheat the oven to 190C

First make the filling: heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onion and cook over a low heat for 5 mins. Add the potato and stock or water and cook for a further 10 mins.Stir in the courgettes and sage and season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 10 mins until the courgettes are tender and the liquid has evaporated. Remove from the heat, stir in the cheese and allow to cool completely.

Cut the sheets in half to make two puffs, and spoon the mixture on to half of the strips leaving a border around the mixture.

Brush the egg or milk around the border and fold the rest of the pastry over so that the filling is covered and the border sticks together.
Egg wash the tops of the pasties and put them in the oven for 15-20 mins at 200C or until golden brown and serve with salad.