RECIPE: Courgette Sabzi

Courgette Sabzi

This simple Bengali dish is usually made from leftover vegetables – whatever you have to hand that are ripe and big enough to cut up. In my home we often used young turai, a local Indian vegetable that is similar to courgette, but beans and carrots both work well cooked in this way because they are relatively quick to cook. In fact, because Indians are very frugal and don’t throw anything away, I’ve often seen this dish made with the vegetable peelings. It’s a great way to use up veggies and, equally, it makes what you have got go a bit further. I’ve used courgette here, which is not a vegetable commonly found in India, but it is available in abundance in other parts of the world. I love its colour and crunchy texture. Courgette Sabzi is very simple to make; you can easily chat to your dinner guest whilst chopping the veg, there is no frying of onions or garlic here – two things that prolong the cooking of Indian food – plus it doesn’t generate much mess. With the dried chillis, nigella seeds and turmeric, it looks and tastes great. Plus it goes with almost everything: meat, fish, I even like it as a filling in Indian bread. Courgette Sabzi is also delicious cold, although less crunchy. Any leftovers are perfect for chucking into your lunch box the next day.

Serves 2 as a main course or 4 as an accompaniment

INGREDIENTS:

2 tbsp vegetable oil 2 dried red chillis, broken in half 1⁄2 tsp nigella (black onion) seeds 400 g/14 oz courgettes (zucchini) cut into 1-cm/1⁄2-inch cubes 1⁄2 tsp ground turmeric 1⁄2 tsp salt

METHOD:

In a deep pan or wok, heat the oil over a medium–high heat. Add the dried red chillis and nigella seeds to the pan. Immediately add the diced courgette to the pan and stir. Add the ground turmeric and salt to the pan and then cook, stirring, over a high heat for 2–3 minutes. It is important not to overcook the courgettes: they should still be crunchy and have a little ‘bite’ to them. The best way to check is to taste a piece: the courgette should be cooked all the way through, but not even close to becoming soft and woolly. Take the pan off the heat while the courgettes are still glossy and firm as they will continue to cook due to the residual heat from the pan.

Before serving, taste to check the seasoning and adjust as necessary.

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