Courgette Salad – How I Started Enjoying the Dreaded Vegetable
Courgette (zucchini) is a vegetable that I could never really get excited about. Although it belongs to the same family as squash and pumpkin, I always thought it must have been their very distant relative. I knew I could prepare various dishes with squashes and majority of them would taste delicious.
But with courgette, it was not the same. Its taste was very bland for me, and I felt I couldn’t improve it. Or at least this is what I thought.
As you probably know if a mother doesn’t like or eat something, it is highly likely her children will duplicate her feelings. And it is not necessarily genes. It is rather the fact that the mother will probably not cook anything with this ingredient.
And this is exactly what happened in our house: my daughters didn’t eat zucchini either.
But one day they went away to spend a weekend with their grandparents. When they came back, they were talking about this yummy courgette salad my mother prepared for them. And they asked me if I could also make it for them.
When I prepared and tried this Courgette Salad, I must say, I started warming up towards the dreaded vegetable. Maybe it was the grilling that gave the courgette a slightly smoky taste? Or maybe it was the marinating in olive, vinegar, and mint that enhanced the flavor even more?
I am not sure. But the bottom line is that the salad was delicious and very refreshing. It tasted fantastic with other summer salads and grilled meat and fish.
This discovery made me think that maybe I shouldn’t be so prejudiced against zucchini. Checking its nutritional facts only confirmed this thought. Courgette is very low in calories (only 17 kcal in 100g), so you can eat a lot of it without worrying about your waistline.
But it is a good source of Vitamin C and potassium. We probably all know a lot about the health benefits of Vitamin C but just a short reminder about potassium. It is essential for the proper functioning of all cells, tissues, and organs (especially the heart) in our bodies. So, what can I say? Stay tuned for more courgette recipes.
Courgette Salad with Mint Dressing
Ingredients
- 2 cm courgettes sliced into approx. 1slices
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- a handful mint leaves
- salt and pepper.
Instructions
- Slice the courgette into max. 1 cm slices.
- Sprinkle the slices with a bit of salt and leave for min. 15 minutes.
- Heat a grill or grilling frying pan.
- Pat dry the zucchini slices and grill them in batches on each side for 2-3 minutes.
- Warm up the olive oil (don't heat it up), add the vinegar, mint and the grilled courgette.
- Stir well and marinate for at least 1 hour.
