Courgette gravadlax style

Courgettes, also known as summer squashes, are abundant in the months of July and August in the UK. If you start picking them earlier rather than later, when they haven’t mattured yet and turned into a marrow, you’ll be rewarded with firm little courgettes that can be eaten raw.

Raw courgettes make a brilliant spiralized pasta, but you would need a spiralizer to do the job. This recipe doesn’t require any special equipment, just a peeler, any amount of courgettes and some basic spices and herbs to make the dressing. In fact, the dish is made with a combination of spices used to make gravadlax (cured salmon) as well as the dressing that you serve the salmon with once it’s cured.

Ingredients:

• 1 average size courgette
• 1 dill finely chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1/2 tsp mustard
• a sweetener to balance out acidity- honey or sugar works well
• salt to taste

Using a peeler peel courgette into thin ribbons. Mix it with the rest of the ingredients and leave it to ‘cure’ for 10-20 mins. Make sure all flavours come through in a balanced way- the saltiness, sweetness, and pungency of mustard.

This makes a very quick and tasty summer salad, a side dish, or a starter. Courgette prepared in this way can be used in layering sandwiches.