Courgette flowers aren’t easy to find, but they are becoming more widely available and if you are growing your own courgettes, you’ll want to try this dish. The addition of the cauliflower, pea and mint stuffing makes this exquisite vegetable dish a bit more substantial. Feel free to vary the stuffing or leave it out altogether – the dish will still be fantastic.
Ingredients
6 courgette flowers
50 g peas
1/4 cauliflower cut into florets
1/2 red onion, diced
1 small stick celery, diced
1 garlic clove, crushed
20 g Parmesan, grated
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Few sprigs of mint
Method
- Pre-heat your oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4-5
- Rinse the courgette flowers carefully (they are delicate!) and leave to dry on some kitchen roll. Once dry, gently prise open the petals and remove the stamen from inside the flower (they can be eaten but it has a slightly bitter flavour and gets in the way when filling them).
- Steam or boil the cauliflower and peas until soft.
- Sweat the onion and celery in a little oil for approx. 3 minutes until they start to soften, then add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes.
- Add a few sprigs of chopped mint, the cooked cauliflower and peas with a little of the cooking water and season well with salt and pepper.
- Then mash or blitz the mix in a food processor to make a rough paste.
- Allow the mix to cool a little, before carefully filling each flower, covering it with the petals and twisting them at the end to enclose the filling.
- Place the filled flowers on a baking tray, drizzle them with a little oil and sprinkle with grated Parmesan and sea salt.
- Bake in the oven for approx. 15 minutes.
Tip
Summer is the perfect time to experiment with edible flowers from the garden, they can add colour and texture to many sweet and savoury dishes. Always check that any flowers you use are edible and wash well before use. Some examples of edible flowers are; nasturtium, chive flowers, calendulas, cornflowers, violas, pansies, lavender and borage flowers.
Serves 2.
