Spicy Preserved Lemon Marinated Courgettes

I used to hate courgettes, but I realised it was because every time I had eaten them they were wet and mushy. Courgettes are one of the best vehicles for flavour. The vegetable itself is quite tasteless, so add anything to it, and it’ll stick to it really well. You’ll only ever find me either pan frying them until golden brown, having them raw or cooking them down in loads of evoo, a bit like confit.

Here I’ve made a punchy spicy preserved lemon dressing to toss the salad through- make it ahead (leave out the herbs) pop it in the fridge until you want to serve it, then toss the rest of teh salad ingredients through.

Serves: 2

Prep/cook time: 15-20 mins

Ingredients 

For the Dressing: 

2 Tbsp Preserved Lemon, roughly chopped

1 Mild Red Chilli, trimmed 

½ Lemon, juiced

40ml Olive Oil 

For the Salad:

12 Large Courgettes, trimmed and thinly sliced into half moons

10g Mint, leaves picked

5g Fresh Oregano, leaves picked

2 Tsp Capers 

40g Shelled Pistachios, roughly chopped 

1 Tsp Pul Biber

Method:

1. Add the preserved lemon, chilli, lemon juice and olive oil into a food processor and blitz until smooth. You can also finely mince the preserved lemon, grate the chilli and whisk all the dressing ingredients together. 

2. Add all the salad ingredients into a bowl and toss with as much dressing as you would like, adding an extra drizzle of olive oil to loosen the mixture a little. Taste and season with salt, if needed.