Why ‘5 Ways to Use Up a Glut’ rarely are and a courgette recipe to prove the point

Courgette clickbait and a minty marinated courgette recipe with cream cheese that actually uses a lot of courgettes

It’s all a con

These clickbait-y, AI-generated articles promising to deal with your courgette glut are all nonsense. Don’t be fooled by them. I understand the temptation, believe me I do. I’m the same. Buried under a mountain of courgettes, I too feel the tug of articles that promise tasty and simple ways to use them up.

But you will not find salvation there

For, when you click on the article, should you make it through the thicket of adverts to the actual recipes, you will find they use only 1-2 courgettes at most.

One or two? This is not a glut. This is barely even a bag from the supermarket. It’s 250g at most. I need recipes that use a kilo at a time. I’ve got bucketfuls to shift here. Shaved courgette tempura is not going to cut it. I need some heavy lifting.

There are courgette recipes and there are courgette GLUT recipes

The two are not the same. The former is for people who have a single courgette in their salad draw waiting for attention. (Hello, courgetti.) The latter is for people like you and me who notice a new ready-to-pick courgette has formed on the courgette plant 5 minutes after you picked the last one.

If you’re honest, you probably knew it was too good to be true before you clicked on the courgette clickbait. Unless you’ve experienced the pace at which a courgette plant in full flow can produce fruit, you can’t truly prepare for the inundation.

So here I offer a recipe for your courgette glut which uses ONE KILO of fruits between four people.

It’s worth making an even bigger batch because it keeps for a week in the fridge and is great with all sorts of dishes: on bruschetta; daubed over mozzarella; stuffed in a crusty baguette sandwich with cheddar; stirred through warm, cooked fregola; served as a side with roast white fish…

Minty marinated courgettes with cream cheese

The knack here is to get the courgettes really well browned, so don’t overcrowd the pan. Adding the garlic and lemon whilst the oil is warm helps the garlic to soften and both to impart their flavour, but the mint will blacken if added to warm oil, so be patient. For a lighter dish, you can replace the cream cheese with yogurt.

Serves 4

• 6 tbsp olive oil

• 1kg courgettes