By Josine Atsma
You can use those large courgettes or small round squashes for this seasonal recipe. I have used an egg to make the filling more firm, but you can leave the egg out to make it suitable for vegans.
Ingredients:
2 large round courgettes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 small onions, chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 handfuls walnuts, chopped
2 tbsp gluten free bread crumbs
2 tsp capers
4 tbsp grated parmesan (or Violife Prosociano)
1 organic egg
Preparation:
Heat the oil and fry the onion and garlic for around 5 minutes. Add the flesh from the courgette (or squash) and cook for another 5 minutes.
In the meantime, put all the rest of the ingredients into a large bowl, apart from the egg, add half of the parmesan (or vegan alternative)
Put the courgette or squash ‘bottoms’ in an oven dish and fill the dish with boiling water up to midway of the courgette/squash.
Drain the onion, courgette mixture and add to the bowl and mix well. Leave it to cool slightly and add the egg. Or you can leave the egg out, if you like it to be vegan. The egg only makes the filling slightly firmer
Top with the rest of the parmesan/fake parmesan.
Put in a 180C (Gas 5) oven and bake for around 30 minutes or until the courgette/squash is soft.
Serve and enjoy.
Josine’s WWOOF host story
Josine and JP are hosts in Scotland sharing their home and garden with with 10 chickens, Harvey the rooster and two cats. “We are self-sufficient in most of our fruit and vegetables and eat weeds in the leaner months.” Josine is the owner of the vibrant and award winning Stirling Health Food Store where many more seasonal recipes like the one above can be found.
JP, who’s a freelance web developer, has built a website called ‘Circle of the Good Life’ where Josine writes a monthly blog about their life in Glendevon. Below is a summary of their WWOOF story including how this energetic and creative couple of ex-WWOOFers from the Netherlands came to be hosts themselves:
“We moved to a cottage with a fairly large garden back in 2011 where we wanted to grow our own fruit and vegetables and be self-sufficient for as much of the year as possible. It soon became clear that we had bitten more off than we could chew and decided we needed help. Thankfully we, ourselves, have been WWOOFers for 9 months in 2006 when we stayed with several different WWOOF hosts, all located in Scotland. This was such a great experience and some hosts had such an inspiring lifestyle that we took the plunge to move to Scotland and be self-sufficient. That’s how we knew about WWOOF and how it can be a two-way exchange of knowledge.”
“We have welcomed between 20 – 30 WWOOFers during our time as hosts and always had great fun and, boy, what a difference an extra pair (or pairs) of hands make! With the help of WWOOFers we built a greenhouse, a chicken coop, dug a massive pond, planted trees, grew lots of vegetables and made jam, sauerkraut and wine. We have so many fond memories: playing board games with each other, watching (horror) movies, listening to music and going for walks in the countryside. Of course, sometimes you find there are not many common grounds between hosts and volunteer or that language is a barrier, but you always find ways around it and that’s what’s so good about WWOOF; you learn about other cultures and can have open discussions to learn even more about others.”
Big thanks to Josine for sharing her potted WWOOF story with us, and of course, this seasonal treat for the taste buds.
Photos: Josine Atsma
