Recipes

Courgettes with Georgian Spices and Walnuts

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on May 24 2025 at 13:40

I’m a huge fan of Caroline Eden’s writing and this is a recipe from her latest book Green Mountains, the final part of a trilogy on her travels through the Balkans and Central Asia.

This volume is based on the Caucasus, specifically Armenia and Georgia, a country I visited a few years back and absolutely loved, myself.

It has ingredients you don’t find - or at least I haven’t found -anywhere else though Eden helpfully suggests substitutes for the harder-to-find ingredients.

She recommends you serve the dish alongside salads and bread as part of a wider meze spread.

SERVES 4

1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

1 onion, finely chopped

3 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced

80g/2 2 3/4 oz walnuts, toasted and broken into pieces

100g/3 1/2 oz sundried tomatoes

1 tbsp khmeli suneli (a mix of coriander seed, dried marigold petals, chilli pepper and blue fenugreek; if you don’t have khmeli suneli then make a spice mix combining at least the chilli and the coriander seed)

1⁄2 tsp sweet paprika

3 courgettes (zucchini), cut into 1cm/1⁄2in diagonal slices

Sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

70g/2 1/2 oz feta, crumbled

Handful of fresh summer herbs (a mixture of coriander (cilantro), parsley, mint, tarragon, dill), chopped

Line a large roasting tray with foil that will accommodate the courgettes in a single layer and preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onion until soft and starting to colour, then add the garlic and cook for another minute or so. Remove to a bowl. Combine the walnuts, sundried tomatoes and spices, then combine with the onion mixture.

Arrange the courgette slices in a single layer on the lined tray, then cover thickly with the nutty, spicy tomato mixture, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for around 25–30 minutes, gently stirring the topping halfway through and, if it’s looking a bit dry, drizzle over a little more oil. Serve garnished with crumbled feta and the fresh herbs.

What to drink: Given this comes from Georgia it would seem perverse not to drink an orange wine with it - a lighter style without too long a period of skin contact I suggest. Otherwise dry rosé would work perfectly well. FB

Extracted from Green Mountains by Caroline Eden, published by Quadrille at £28. Photograph by Ola O. Smit.

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