Courgettes are reproducing at pace in my vegetable crisper.
Seriously.
Every year the same thing happens. You see, I get this fantastic locally grown weekly organic box filled with all sorts of wonderful goodies – kohlrabi, fresh peas, tomatoes, spicy Chinese greens (my favourite!), last week an Indian Kheera cucumber…. and courgettes, among many other things. I think that courgettes must be a fairly easy crop to grow here in Shetland as there are two or three of them in every week’s delivery, and I always struggle to find things to do with them.
One I managed to make disappear into these rather tasty courgette and poppy seed muffins. Inspired by these chocolate chip and chia seed muffins from Searching for Spice, who linked up with my No Waste Food Challenge, I got a bit creative with the ingredients I had on hand, and was rather successful too, I think!
My cooking strategy right now is to get creative with the things I already have. My storecupboard/pantry is bursting with half bags of this, that and the other thing and after a summer spent adventuring, music lesson tuition, a surprise private dental bill and a less surprising garage bill (why is garage labour SO expensive!) we’ve decided to take on a frugal approach to things for awhile, at least until our bank balances recover.
So yes, faced with a fridge full of reproducing courgettes I grated one into a batter that I made with some lemon infused olive oil from Pomora (see the badge in the sidebar) and two rather small hen’s eggs (also from said organic vegetable box). I quite fancied making courgette, lemon and poppy seed muffins based on Corina’s recipe, but I had no lemons. I was loathe to walk all the way to the shop to buy one (I will not part with 35p if I don’t have to! I’m on a mission!), so I used the last of the spring shipment of the Pomora lemon-infused olive oil to great effect.
I originally wasn’t going to blog these as I was just experimenting, but my husband was that impressed with them he insisted I should share the recipe with you all. He says they’re like eating something healthy without it tasting too healthy, if you know what I mean.
Not too sweet and almost savoury in taste, they’re perfect in a packed work/school lunch or with a morning cuppa – after all, who doesn’t fancy a bit of cake for breakfast?
How do you use up those courgettes lurking in the back of the fridge? Do you have any recipe suggestions? Let me know in the comments! I’ve got two days to make four courgettes and a marrow disappear before more appear in my veg box.
Courgette & Poppy Seed Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 medium courgette grated (about 150 grams)
- 150 grams granulated sugar
- 80 ml lemon infused olive oil
- 1 large free-range egg or 2 small
- 210 grams self-raising flour
- 1/2 tsp Shetland sea salt
- 100 ml full fat milk
- 1 tbsp poppy seeds
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200 C/ 180 C fan and place 12 large muffin cases into a 12 hole muffin tin.
- Wash and pat dry your courgette. Grate with the large side of a grater and spread out in between layers of paper towel to dry slightly while you prepare the batter.
- Whisk together the sugar, oil and eggs until combined thoroughly.
- Sieve over the self-raising flour and salt, and fold into the batter along with the milk. There might be lumps, don't worry about this.
- Fold in the grated courgette and poppyseeds.
- Bake in the middle of your oven for 15-20 minutes until risen and golden.
- Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
Notes
Environmental Information
OTHER COURGETTE RECIPES YOU MIGHT LIKE
Chocolate Courgette Loaf by Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
Courgette, Potato & Onion Bake from Foodie Quine
Courgette Spaghetti Alfredo by Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
Cheesy Courgette Omelette by Fab Food 4 All
Broad Bean & Courgette Soup with Gouda by Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
Vegan Zucchini Quinoi Sushi Rolls by The Petite Cook
Spiced Tomato & Courgette Chutney by Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
Roasted Courgette Salad with Lemon, Chilli, Basil and Crispy Shallots by Recipes from a Pantry
Broad Bean & Courgette Salad by Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary
Spiralized Courgette with Garlic Mushrooms by The Lovely Appetite
Peteās Courgette, Blue Cheese & Cherry Tomato Quiche by Kavey Eats
SHARING WITH SOME BLOG LINKIES
Love Cake by Jibber Jabber UK
Treat Petite by Cakey BoiĀ (host) and The Baking Explorer
Cook Once, Eat Twice by Searching for Spice
The No Waste Food Challenge Summer Collection
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Hope you aren’t hugely offended, but – being in “glut season” myself – I made this recipe today (albeit with sunflower oil and lemon juice/zest), but as is usual when I make muffins, after the weighing and mixing stage I just couldn’t be bothered with lining and spooning muffins… So I’ve baked it as a loaf cake, and smeared the top with a couple of spoonfuls of lemon curd whilst hot, which will hopefully cool to a sticky but sharp glaze… The proof of the pudding will be determined by the length of time the loaf survives the staff room tomorrow!
Also, I really don’t like courgettes, but have eaten more this last couple of weeks than in the last 38 years! So far – courgette and potato soup from the BBC good food website (went down well with courgette hating kids!), blitzed into pasta sauce and frozen for winter, cheese and courgette scones, Gill Holcombe recipe), and courgette, bacon and sweetcorn fritters roughly based on a recipe I found somewhere online, but tweaked to family taste, and they were lush. Later this week I am planning your Italian courgette soup, and the banana courgette loaf recipes. And a Gino D’Acampo courgette pizza… As well as grating/dicing and freezing. Got to love an allotment!
omg, this looks absolutely delicious! And your photos made them even more drool worthy. Great job!
That looks and sounds really delicious to eat.
These look great! I made a similar courgette loaf recently and love how it makes bakes so moist.
These look lovely! If you don’t have access to lemon olive oil can you use normal olive oil and put the zest of a lemon in instead?
Absolutely! Alternatively, use a flavourless oil like sunflower or canola š
This is the first time in some years that I haven’t grown courgettes. They do go so well in cakes and make them lovely and moist. I guess you have made lots of tomato sauces and grated them as well?
I love baking with courgette, it does add great moisture to bakes. Thank for adding these to Treat Petite Elizabeth.
seriously how amazing is the courgette? i made brownies with it ones and they were devine so i’ll certainly be giving this a go!
They do look delicious, I am intrigued by the idea of courgettes in a cake, but guess we get carrot cake so why not courgette.
Woow I love the idea of these muffins! What a brilliant idea using courgettes. Healthy and nice!
Courgette is so good in cake, I bet these cupcakes are so moist and delicious! Thanks for linking up with #TreatPetite
What an interesting combination, and sounds healthy too!
These look delicious. I was wondering if you knew of a way I could make these more baby friendly (something to substitute the sugar with)
Oh what an interesting combination, they look great though! Will have to try these out! xo
Wow great to get the kids eating more veg, thanks for sharing.
I adore anything with poppy seeds, and courgettes make the most amazing cakes! These sounds delicious x
I love lemon and poppy seed muffins, but I have never tried them with courgette in them. I will definitely be giving that a go!
Courgette in a muffin? Seriously?! I’m so curious of how this tastes š
I always have courgetti and as much as I love it, I want to try something different with courgettes. These sound delicious!
Oh these look amazing – I have never seen muffins with these ingredients in, how delicious! Kaz x
I never thought of cougette muffin before but That does look really delicious. xx I will try this out. x
These sound so yummy. I love poppy seeds too! We need to try this recipe.
I’ve never had anything like these before so I will have to try them X
These sound yum! I am a huge fan of anything that has poppy seed in it!
Yum yum yum! Courgette is so good in baked goods š
I really need to take a leaf out of your book and start working through the food I have in the cupboards before buying more – this looks like a great way to use up some old courgettes!
Wow, I’d never thought of using courgette in muffins before, these look so tasty! I will have to give them a go! š
This looks delicious! I remember one vegs muffin I ordered at Sheffield and it was my favourite meal till they replace it by a veggie cake…I think I preferred the muffin! hahaha I hope they see your recipe x
These sound fantastic! And thank you for your kind words about how my own muffins inspired these ones. I always seem to have a few courgettes at the bottom of the fridge too and have actually wanted to make a cake/muffins with courgette for quite a while and almost did last week. I’d started weighing out ingredients and then discovered the courgettes I’d thought were there had been eaten! I ended up making carrot muffins instead. Thank you so much for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice!
I do love courgettes, which is just as well considering the glut we get from the garden and allotment most years! I’ve not used them in muffins yet though, great idea!
Courgettes make cakes so moist and I love the texture that they give to muffins. These look lovely!
These muffins look so good Elizabeth, I have yet to use courgette in a sweet bake but my MIL did give me a lemon fake recipe once that she’d eaten so need to get with it:-) Thanks for including my omelette recipe:-)
I’de never have thought about putting something like courgette into muffins but I guess what else do you do with them when you have that many?! x
This is such a cool way of incorporating courgettes! I’d love to see how they influence the flavor!
I’d have never thought of putting courgettes into muffins a great way to use them up though.
This is a really interesting combination. I would never have thought of courgette and poppy seed x
Ohh now I wouldn’t have thought of mixing courgette and poppy seeds into a muffin but now I’ve heard of it – I would love to try it. x