Cooking with zucchini

1. Whether you grill or bake it, this vegetable fits with all kinds of dishes thanks to its neutral taste. Although it is originally a summer product in the Netherlands, this little brother of the cucumber is available all year round. This is how you cook with courgettes.

1. Zucchini is a fruiting vegetable that is a member of the cucumber family (cucurbitaceae). It is related not only to the cucumber, but also to the pickle, pumpkin and melon. In every supermarket you will find the dark green, elongated version of 20-25 centimeters. In addition, you sometimes come across ball zucchini - the name says it all: zucchini with a round shape - and light green and yellow varieties. These courgettes all have the same, fairly neutral taste. But: the smaller the zucchini, the tastier. Although they are harvested in the Netherlands from a length of 7 centimeters, it takes a while to find these little ones. You can come across them at a greengrocer or Turkish supermarket. Like other vegetables, zucchini are low in calories, but high in fiber and nutrients.

Buy and save

1. Courgettes are available all year round. In the winter months, from November to February, they have to come from abroad. The plants are not resistant to frost. They can therefore only grow in the open ground in the Netherlands in June. Choose firm courgettes with a smooth skin, without dents and soft spots, but with a whole crown. Preferably keep them in a cool pantry at 12 to 15 degrees Celsius, so that they still ripen. On hot summer days, the vegetable drawer in the refrigerator is the best alternative. They keep for about a week. You can also keep the vegetables in the freezer if you cook them first or blanch them for a few minutes. Another option is to grate the zucchini, squeeze out as much moisture as possible and freeze the grater. The taste will then deteriorate a bit.

Vegetable garden

1. Do you have a piece of land? You can easily grow zucchini yourself. If you plant seeds in pots in May and place them in the windowsill, you can put the plants outside in the soil or a large container in June. Courgette plants grow quickly and one specimen produces dozens of fruits in the summer. The advantage is that you can harvest the courgettes from your own garden when you find them large enough. Then new fruits appear again. In any case, do not let them grow: courgettes larger than 30 centimeters are often so bland that they can at most be put in the soup.

Edible flowers

1. The courgette plant also produces edible flowers that are known as a delicacy in Italy. Male flowers grow on the stems. These are also called courgette fioretta. They are a bit larger and firmer than the female flowers and therefore you can fill and fry them well. Each fruit - when the courgette is still small - grows a feminine flower, also known as courgette fleur. Due to their striking yellow / orange color, zucchini flowers are often mainly used for decoration. If you want to use the zucchini flowers from your vegetable garden, you have to set the alarm. Early in the morning the flowers are open, ready to be picked. After about ten hours they wither.

Preparation

1. Wash zucchini, don't need to peel. Cut off the crown and butt and remove unsightly spots. You can eat the seeds as usual. Very large specimens are sometimes a bit fibrous and stringy in the core: in that case remove the middle part. You can then eat the vegetables raw, but you can also grill, bake, cook, deep-fry, fill, roast, stew or use it in a soup or oven dish.

11 x courgette

1. Stir-fried courgette Zucchini with a crumb layer Stuffed zucchini Penne with salmon and zucchini Zucchini carpaccio Zucchini potato dish Zucchini Soup With Salmon Zucchini with sundried tomatoes Bruschetta with grilled zucchini and Parmesan Chocolate cake with zucchini Zucchini Fritters Â