I’ve crumbled feta into courgettes for years now – sometimes with nuts and sometimes with raisins. Then I found I had some bought tzatziki in the fridge which needed eating up – I threw that in too and was happily surprised with the result. In fact tzatziki is always best home-made, but if you wanted to cheat with this recipe you could simply by ready-made tzatziki and add the feta and walnuts.

Now I always get asked for the recipe for this. It goes particularly well with lamb.

For four

• 400g/14 oz courgettes (baby ones are best)
• 4 tbsp Greek yoghurt
• 1 fat garlic clove, crushed with 1 tsp smoked salt
• Juice and zest of a small lemon
• Olive oil spray
• 40g/⅓ cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)
• 100g/4 oz/½ standard pack feta cheese
• About ten grinds Indonesian long pepper
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill – or if you are serving this with lamb – mint

1. 

   Briefly dry fry the walnut pieces – why? Go here to find out

2. Using a potato peeler cut the baby courgettes into long lengths
3. Arrange them on an oiled, ribbed, griddle pan, spray over some olive oil and grind over some pepper. Griddle for a couple of minutes on each side, until they get those attractive, professional-looking black stripes. If you don’t have a griddle pan you can simply fry!
4. Mix the yoghurt, garlic, and lemon juice together in a bowl large enough to contain the courgettes. Keep in a warm place. Reserve the zest.
5. Just before serving mix the courgettes in with the yoghurt mixture.
6. Serve the coated courgettes on each plate along with whatever meat you are offering. Crumble over some feta, and sprinkle over walnuts, dill and lemon zest