Grilled Courgettes with Cashew Cream and Za’atar
These Grilled Courgettes with Cashew Cream and Za’atar make the perfect lunch, appetiser, or light main course. They taste of summer.
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Eating the seasons
Nothing gives me more joy than seeing a new fruit or vegetable come into season so I can enjoy it at its best. Right now it’s courgettes. Courgettes are usually harvested between June and October in the UK but depending on the weather you may find the season a little longer or a little shorter. (You never can tell with climate change these days…)
What I love about courgettes is that they are an easy vegetable to grow by yourself. They work well in pots if you don’t have tonnes of space and they grow surprisingly fast if given a little love and attention. We grow a range of different courgette varieties every year so I’m always looking for new ways to cook them.
For more information about growing your own fruits and vegetables, check out the Kitchen Garden section of the blog.
There are three key components to this dish, grilled courgettes, cashew cream and za’atar. Together they create a really fresh, summery dish that is perfect for serving on a range of occasions.
I like to enjoy it as a lunch, or light dinner – often with flat breads. Or it can work really well as an appetiser or starter as part of a larger meal. I’ve also served it as a dish at a BBQ before. There’s some added theatre when you cook the courgettes on the BBQ then add them to the plate. Simply double or treble the size of the recipe to feed your crowd.
Grilled courgettes
Grilling is one of my favourite ways to cook courgettes. Placed on a high heat in a grill pan, they become tender really quickly and get wonderful bar marks across their flesh making for a really pretty finish.
I also love using the same technique but on a BBQ. They get a wonderful smoky flavour this way which adds something extra.
You can grill courgettes a couple of ways. For large courgettes I like to cut them into long strips or into rounds. Today I’m using baby courgettes so I’ve simply cut them in half. Either way you don’t want them to be more than 1 cm thick or they will take longer to cook.
Cashew cream
Grilled courgettes taste delicious when served with yogurt or labneh. But, given this is a vegan recipe we need to get creative. You could buy a plant based plain yogurt but it doesn’t have the same richness or thick texture. I much prefer to make a thick cashew cream and flavour it with lemon, garlic and mint.
Za’atar
Once we’ve made the cashew cream and topped them with the grilled courgettes I like to finish the dish off with some fresh mint and za’atar.
Za’atar is actually a herb sometimes referred to as Middle Eastern oregano. But when people refer to za’atar they are more commonly referring to a Middle Eastern spice blend that contains the likes of oregano, thyme, marjoram, sumac and toasted sesame seeds.
It’s the spice blend that we use in this recipe.
The reason I love topping this dish with za’atar is because it gives a really herby, fresh flavour that works perfectly with the rich cashew cream and the subtle, sweet flavour of the courgettes.
In the UK lots of supermarkets now sell za’atar so it shouldn’t be too hard to get a hold of.
The recipe
Once you’ve got your three key components: grilled courgettes, cashew cream and za’atar your dish is ready to go. Let’s get cooking.
Grilled Courgettes with Cashew Cream and Za’atar
Equipment
- 1 high speed blender
Ingredients
For the grilled courgettes
- 2 large courgettes or 8 baby courgettes, cut so that they are no more than 1cm thick
- 1 tbsp oil
For the cashew cream
- 140 g cashews soaked overnight (or boiled with water in a saucepan for 15 minutes) until soft
- 120 ml water
- 2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 6 tbsp lemon juice
- 0.5 tsp onion powder
To serve
- 1 tbsp za’atar
- 4 tbsp pomegranate seeds
- 1 bunch fresh mint leaves only cut into thin strips
Instructions
To grill the courgettes
- Add a little oil to your grill pan and turn the heat up high.
- Place the courgettes into the pan and cook for 5 minutes until charred but starting to go soft.
- Flip them over and cook for another 5 minutes or until they are tender to the touch.
To make the cashew cream
- Drain the cashews and rinse with fresh water.
- Add the cashews to a high-powered blender along with the water, garlic, salt, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, and onion powder. Blend on high until it is smooth, thick and creamy (this should take between 2 and 5 minutes).
- You might need to scrape down the sides with a spatula as you go.
To serve
- Spread the cashew cream over your serving dish.
- Top with the grilled courgettes.
- Sprinkle over the za'atar, pomegranate and fresh mint.
Nutrition
Serving suggestions
I think this recipe goes really well with some grilled “meat”. We found some vegan kofte in Waitrose so decided to grill them to go alongside.
We’ve also seen vegan kofte in the BBQ section in Tesco’s when summer is in full swing.
How will you serve yours?
More courgette recipes
More summer recipes
For the full range of recipes that are perfect for summer check out the summer recipe collection.