ROASTED ZUCCHINI WITH CHILLI-FETA

I’d like to think of myself as an organised cook. Relatively speaking of course (I use the term very loosely and my husband thinks even that’s a stretch). I meal-plan and cook using locally sourced and seasonal ingredients for the most part and also try to minimize waste as much as possible. And those obscure ingredients that you see me hoarding? I make sure to pick things that have a really long shelf life and where a little goes a long way. Dried chillies, dried mushrooms, chipotle and harissa pastes, miso, gochunjang are a few off the top of my head.

In a similar vein and in keeping with the meal-prepping/low waste theme, I always always have blocks of cheese in my freezer: I buy in bulk—again, mostly local brands—separate into types of cheese and quantities we’d normally use, mark them, and stash them away in bags for the long haul. (Pull out as much as you need, thaw in the fridge and use.)

One of the things I keep vowing to do is to use more paneer in recipes that call for fancier varieties of cheese. Here are a few if you’re interested: Roasted aubergine with harissa + whipped paneer, Spinach & paneer stuffed banana pepper bake, Zucchini, carrot & paneer latkes, Spinach, paneer & tomato pasta bake. (Woah, I didn’t realize how many I have on here!) As much as I love cheeses of all types, textures and funk, feta is an all time favourite (as is obvious with the sheer number of recipes I have on here that feature it).

This salad/side is so simple to throw together, it really stretches the definition of what recipe writing constitutes – roast the zucchini and crumble over feta, chilli flakes, lemon zest and mint. That’s it. That’s the ‘recipe’. You could totally use this chilli-feta crumble over grilled/roasted aubergines, carrots, pumpkin, or even a combination of these veg. In other words, it’s very versatile and you shouldn’t wait to hunt down zucchinis for this. I hope you like this as much as we do. Not surprised at how quickly it’s shimmied its way up to becoming one of our favourite things to eat!