Hi everyone! Sorry for the very, VERY, long hiatus. A few things have been happening over the past couple of months and as a result I was left extremely busy. But I’m back now with a wee bit of free time on my hands so recipes are going to start popping up on a regular schedule!

Today’s recipe revolves around two my favourite things, lamb and courgettes. It’s cheap, it’s healthy and it complies with zero-waste philosophy we try to practice here at Honest Foods (check out Naomi’s section of Honest Foods to find out more). The cores of the courgettes are used as an alternative to a traditional panade you’d usually add to your mince, resulting in a much more succulent and tasty mince. Try it out down below. Hope you like it! 

Serves:  4 as a main or 8 as an appetiser 

Ingredients: 

• Lamb mince – 350g
• Courgettes – 4 units medium sized – sliced in half and cored 
• Ground cinnamon – 1/2 tsp
• Ground cloves – 1 tsp
• Ground cumin – 1 tsp 
• Smoked paprika – 1 tsp
• Chilli powder – 1 tsp
• Ripe tomatoes – 250g
• Garlic – 2 tbs minced 
• Lemon zest – To taste 
• Parsley – 2 tbs finely chopped
• Mint – 1 tbs finely chopped 
• Coriander – 1 tbs finely chopped 
• Basil – 5 – 8 leaves roughly chopped 
• Salt – to taste 
• Pepper – to taste 

Instructions:

Courgettes: Part 1

1. Slice your courgettes in half and core out the seeds.
2. Lightly salt your courgettes and leave them aside for anywhere between 15 – 30 minutes. This will draw out all the moisture from the body of the courgette, allowing you to still get a bite out of it after baking. Rather than biting into a soggy mush.

Tomato Concasse 

1. Pre-heat your oven to 160*C
2. Slice your tomatoes in half and remove the cores.
3. Then chop up the flesh of the tomato into a brunoise (cubes) roughly the size of 1cm per side. 
4. Heat up a non-stick pan with some extra virgin olive oil on a medium heat.
5. When the pan has come to temperature, throw in your garlic and sauté until fragrant and the garlic begins to turn golden brown. 
6. Add in your brunoise of tomatoes and stir fry gently with the garlic for about 1 minute or so. 
7. If it looks to be to thin, add in a bit of the cores from the tomatoes to thin it out. Don’t add water. It’s flavourless. 
8. When you’ve reached a saucy consistency, season to taste and then throw in your chopped basil. 
9. Leave your concasse to rest until you need to reheat it again before serving. This is to allow the flavours to settle and get to know each other. It’ll taste much better after.

Courgettes: Part 2

1. By now your courgettes should have loads of water on their surface. This is the result of salting them in advance. 
2. Wipe them down clean with a paper towel, and then season them with a wee bit more salt. 
3. Lay your courgettes on a baking tray, core side up, and bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes, until just baked. 
4. Whilst your courgettes are baking, marinade your lamb mince with the cinnamon, cloves, cumin, paprika, chilli powder, garlic, lemon zest, parsley, mint and coriander. 
5. Then mix in half the cores of the courgettes into the mince.  Set the other half aside. 
6. Mix them in well and then season to taste with salt and pepper. 
7. Divide the mince between the 8 courgette and place them in the core of each courgette. 
8. Then bake the courgettes in the oven at 150*C for another 10-15 minutes.  
9. Serve and enjoy! 

Serving:

1. Just before the courgettes are finished baking, reheat your concasse.

10. Serve immediately with a carbohydrate of your choice, or you can choose to eat them alone as they are.
11. Before serving, spoon a generous serving of the tomato concasse on each of the courgettes, and top it off with extra virgin olive oil, more lemon zest, toasted walnuts and toasted pumpkin seeds.
12. 1-2 slices or green chilli or spicy pickles go well with this too. 

Notes:

1. Use the other courgette half for another recipe like burgers, where you substitute the breadcrumbs for them. You can even use them to stuff meats before roasting – this won’t bring much flavour but it will definitely keep your meats moist. 
2. The courgette cores will last in a ziplock bag in the fridge for at least 5-7 days before starting to turn slimy. 
3. You can even freeze them if you want. 
4. If you make a lot more concasse than you need, you can always turn it into a base of a sauce, the simplest would be for pasta, but push your limits and think of something else to do with it!
5. My favourite way of eating this is with some stewed barley cooked in lamb stock and some carrots, as seen in the picture. Keep an eye out on Honest Foods for that recipe! 

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