COOKING: ZUCCHINI

for those people blessed with the ability of keeping a vegetable garden alive for longer then a week, zucchinis are popping up everywhere. we've been given plenty by friends and family so i wanted to try some different zucchini recipes rather then the usual zucchini soup (which it has been WAY to hot for lately in tasmania.) so the other night we had zucchini burgers with raita and grilled zucchini salad. it might seem like a zucchini overload, but the burgers had plenty of other flavours to compete with it. it was super tasty! and so nice not having the heaviness in my stomach like i usually would with meat patties. 

zucchini burgers with raita

serves 2-3

ingredients:

1 zucchini, ends trimmed, coursely grated

1 cup of natural yoghurt

a squeeze of lemon juice

1 small cucumber, halved, seeded and finely chopped

olive oil spray

a crushed garlic clove

a brown onion, finely chopped

2 tsp of curry powder

400g can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained

100g of breadcrumbs

a few leaves of fresh parsley, chopped

1 egg lightly whisked

bread rolls 

baby spinach leaves to serve

plain flour for dusting

combine yoghurt, cucumber and lemon juice in a small ramekin or bowl.

cover the raita and place in fridge to chill

heat frying pan on medium, spray with oil and cook onions until soft

add garlic and cook for 1 minute

throw in curry powder and stir for a minute or two until it smells delicious

add zucchini and cook till soft

process chickpeas til they're like breadcrumbs

mix onion mixture, eggs, chickpeas, parsley and breadcrumbs in a bowl until well combined

dust hands with flour

shape into patties

reheat frying pan on medium high

spray with oil and cook patties until delicious and golden

stack the patties, spinach leaves and raita in a bun and put to the side

grilled zucchini salad

serves 2

ingredients

1 big or 2 small zucchini 

squeeze of lemon juice

a small bunch of herbs on hand (i used parsley and mint, but coriander would be nice too)

a pinch of fennel seeds
olive oil
salt and pepper

thinly slice zucchini longways 
toss slices in olive oil, salt and pepper
sear on a hot grill until dark marks appear (depends on how thick the slices)
flip and grill other side
chop herbs roughly
toss grilled zucchini, herbs, fennel seeds and lemon together in a bowl
place salad next to the burgers
admire your handiwork
devour
;)

xx Bret