Did you know the flowers and young leaves of a courgette plant are also edible? This list includes recipe suggestions for how to use them up too.

Tip: bookmark the post so you can come back for inspiration, the next time you are in the courgette cooking mood!

Note: this post contains affiliate links, but all opinions are my own.

Savoury courgette recipe options

Vegan recipes

1. Courgette Salad – slice baby courgettes thinly and sprinkle over your salad. Alternatively spiralise the courgettes and mix with salad leaves. Drizzle over some oil and vinegar, or salad dressing of your choice.
2. Courgette Chutney
3. Courgette Pickle
4. Breaded courgettes: Coat in oil and then in breadcrumbs and then bake
5. Thinly slice and sprinkle over a pizza
6. Courgetti spaghetti/ noodles. Spiralise (I love my Oxo Good Grips Spiraliser) then steam them for 5 minutes, or fry in a little oil. Use them as a noodle base, or add spiralised courgette to salad raw.
7. Roasted. Mix with peppers (quartered), mushrooms and carrots (chopped in half if large ones) toss in olive oil and season with Italian herbs. Roast for around 30 mins at 180 to 200 degrees C (turn over the veg after 15 mins).
8. Ratatouille
9. Slice thinly and dehydrate, to either use later or eat as a snack.
10. Grate or dice, blanche in hot water and freeze to use another time.

Vegetarian recipes

1. Zuchinni pea fritters
2. Spicy courgette koftas
3. Courgette / zucchini souffle
4. Courgette lasagne Courgette lasagne
5. Creamy courgette soup
6. Courgette and lemon tagliatelle. Slice the courgette thinly, then fry in a little oil and garlic. Next add to the cooked tagliatelle (cook 90g raw tagliatelle per person), with a squeeze of lemon juice and a drizzle of oil. Add salt and pepper to taste and grate over some parmesan.
7. Melting cheese courgettes
8. Courgette risotto
9. Courgette/ zuchinni bread
10. Canneloni filling – grate the courgette and mix with ricotta or cottage cheese. Cover with a passata pasta sauce and bake
11. Pistou soup
12. Courgette and red onion bhajis

Sweet dessert courgette recipes

1. Spelt, zucchini and lemon cake
2. Gluten free courgette chocolate cake
3. Blueberry zucchini muffins
4. Courgette and lime cake
5. Courgette jam
6. Courgette lemon drizzle cake
7. Dairy free chocolate zucchini cupcakes
8. Banana zucchini muffins
9. Zucchini chocolate chip cookies

Courgette flower and leaf recipes

I have always wanted to learn how to cook courgette flowers and once I got going with it, I got a bit addicted. Most courgette / zucchini flower recipes involve deep frying them. But sometimes I tear them into pieces and sprinkle them over salads raw. I love the splash of colour they add to the salad leaves!

Always use the male flowers, unless you are picking a baby courgette with a flower attached. You can identify the male flowers because they have no courgette attached. I wait until they have closed up because the closed flower will keep the stuffing contained. Carefully pull the stem and stamen out of the flower at the bottom, leaving a circular opening. Give it a wash and then it is ready to be stuffed

1. Deep fried courgette flowers stuffed with ricotta and herbs
2. Fried courgette flowers with honey and vinegar
3. Traditional Italian Fried Zucchini Blossoms
4. Finely chop a baby courgette, mix with a dollop of houmous and a chopped up mushroom. Stuff the prepared courgette flower with the mix. Then make up a simple batter of flour and water. Coat the courgette flower in the batter and then deep fry until crispy.
5. Make a simple batter as above and cover a washed baby courgette complete with flower still attached (but pull out the guts of the flower) and deep fry.

Take it one step further and check out this article with various recipes for courgette leaves: How to cook zucchini leaves

The post Love courgettes? Feast on these delicious ways to use them up! appeared first on Eco Thrifty Living.