Vegetable skewers

These skewers are another product of trying to use up the leftover vegetables in the fridge. They turned out really well and are perfect for a BBQ. But even if the weather is freezing you can fix them in an oven.

Ingredients:

1	Sweet potato, large
4	Potato, medium
2-3	Beetroots, boiled
500g	Broccoli
	Olive oil
1 tsp.	Garlic paste
1/4 tsp.	Roasted curry powder

1/4 tsp.	Chili flakes
	Salt and pepper
20	Bamboo skewers

Method:

Fill a basin with cold water and allow your skewers to soak. This will prevent them from catching fire when you put them on the grill or in the oven. 

Put the fan oven on at 200 C (220C convection oven).

Peel the potatoes and cut into 2 cm dice. I made 20 such cubes. Each of the vegetables is going to have a different taste, thus you'll need two roasting dishes. One for the regular potato and one for the sweet one. You can't really just grill the potatoes on the skewers, that would take forever and the other vegetables would be over cooked. So I pre-baked them. I did this in the oven. The sweet potato I tossed in olive oil (less than 1 tablespoon), salt and the chilli flakes. The regular potato I tossed in olive oil, garlic paste (make it fresh) and salt. Put the potatoes in a baking dish and bake until just tender. You should be able to get a fork about halfway through. If you want to do this on a BBQ just wrap the cut and marinaded potatoes in foil and grill them.

If you use fresh beetroot you'll have to boil them until they are barely cooked. If you live in Germany you can buy precooked ones in the store. This will save you a lot of time, however, the quality of the beets may note be great. I always buy organic ones from Lidl. I've tried other ones but they don't taste good. 

Cut your beet into 2 cm dice, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and roasted curry powder.

Wash your broccoli and cut into 20 pieces. Again drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

Once all the vegetables are ready skewer them and grill them for about 5 minutes. After this time some of the surfaces will start to burn giving it a nice "grilled" look. Then turn off the grill and put on the oven and leave for another 5 minutes or so. Just enough so that the broccoli is tender.

We found the broccoli a bit dry. That would have not been an issue if I hadn't forgotten to make a the dipping sauce! You can find the recipe here. Another nice accompaniment would be sauce hollandaise. 

Vegetarian stuffed zucchini

I planted some seeds this year that were to yield some edible flowers. I was so looking forward to them but when it came round to it I just did not have the time or energy to use them. So I let them just grow. Turns out that one of the plants was a zucchini plant and it did really well. I have two plants and have not bought any zucchini all summer long. It's been a challenge to find different ways to cook them. But today I harvested two fruit and since it was such beautiful weather, probably the last of the season, I decided to stuff them and grill them on the BBQ. So in case you are looking for a different way to cook your zucchini, or are just looking for something fun and vegetarian to throw on the grill, this is for you.

Preparation time: 1 hour; serves 4  (as a side)

Ingredients:

1/4 tsp. Garlic powder

2	Zucchini
1/4 cup	Shallot, finely chopped
1 clove	Garlic, finely chopped
1	Medium tomato
3 tbsp.	Olive oil
2 tbsp.	Bread crumbs
1/2 cup	Parmesan, finely grated
3 sprigs	Oregano
2 sprigs	Thyme
1/4 tsp.	Garlic powder
	Salt and pepper

Method:

Split your zucchini lengthwise and scoop out the inner flesh leaving a pretty thick shell. Remember that zucchini gets really soft when cooked and so if you want it to keep it's shape the shell has to be a bit thicker. I noticed on my zucchini that on the inside there were two different colours. It was very subtle but the inner part where the seeds were had just a slightly different colour. I scooped out along this line. Roughly chop the scooped out zucchini.

Finely chop the shallot and dice the tomato. My tomato has such a funny shape because it also came straight from my garden. Hence the beautiful red colour.

Heat 2 tbsp. of the oil in anything you like and saute the shallots until they become transparent and soft. Add the garlic and stir it in. Then add the zucchini and fry over high heat. I like zucchini when it's done over high heat because it turns golden and it has a much better taste. However, this means that you have to stir it all the time to prevent it from burning. Once the zucchini is cooked add the tomato and continue cooking until no large chunks of tomato are visible. Note that I try not to skin my tomatoes. Skinning them takes away so much nutrients and so much tomato goes to waste.

While this is cooking chop the herbs and grate the cheese.

Once the tomato is cooked remove the stuffing from the heat and add the breadcrumbs, herbs and half of the parmesan. Stir well until everything is combined. Your filling should be relatively dry. If it's not cook it a bit more to get rid of any excess fluids. However, you should do this after adding the breadcrumbs and before adding the herbs and cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you like spicy foods consider adding some chilli pieces or sauce.

Now brush the zucchini shells with the rest of the olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Grill the shells with the cut side down for 3-5 minutes on a hot BBQ (or grill). Remove them and then stuff them with the filling. Topping with the left over cheese. Put them back on the grill for another 5 - 7 minutes or until the cheese is just melted. Note that you don't want to over cook the shell because then the whole thing will just fall to pieces. So keep an eye on your food!