11 recipes to get through the zucchini and peppers in your garden

🥒 Nobody has ever planted too few zucchini

There’s a point every August where the garden stops giving and starts imposing. Two zucchini plants will feed a whole street, and eventually the neighbours stop answering the door when you show up holding a bag.

Peppers follow. So do cucumbers. Eggplant always picks the worst possible moment.

Eleven recipes so the surplus ends up on a plate instead of in the compost.

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Grilled zucchini with lemon and Dijon dressing

Lemon, Dijon, olive oil. Three things that turn zucchini planks into something people ask for again. Good hot, better lukewarm.

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Turkey and chorizo stuffed zucchini

The zucchini becomes the container, which solves two problems at once. Chorizo brings the fat and the heat, turkey keeps it light. A full dinner on one plate.

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Rigatoni with pork and zucchini

The zucchini melts into the sauce and all but disappears, which helps a lot with kids who sort their plate. A weeknight pasta that doesn’t ask for anything complicated.

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Zucchini mac and cheese

Mac and cheese with a vegetable hidden inside. Nobody saw a thing, everybody went back for seconds.

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Zucchini and italian sausage stuffed peppers

Two garden vegetables in the same recipe means half the surplus. The italian sausage does all the seasoning work for you.

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Roasted red pepper rosé sauce

The peppers go under the broiler until the skin blackens, and that’s exactly where the flavour comes from. The sauce freezes well, which saves a weeknight later on.

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Stuffed peppers with vegetable rice and grilled BBQ chicken

Last night’s grilled chicken ends up here, with rice and whatever vegetables are hanging around. A clean-out-the-fridge recipe that doesn’t look like one.

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Rigatoni with red pepper purée

Roasted peppers and mushrooms turn into a sauce that clings to rigatoni. A meatless dish that isn’t trying to imitate meat for a second.

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Orecchiette with grilled eggplant and mozzarella di bufala

The grilled eggplant collapses into the pasta and the mozzarella di bufala goes in at the very end. Southern Italy, built from what grows here.

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Asian cucumber salad

Rice vinegar, sesame, garlic, a little sambal. The kind of salad that comes together while you wait for everything else to finish cooking.

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Creamy cucumber, tomato and fresh herb salad

Cucumber, cherry tomatoes, parsley, mint, chives. The August garden classic, the one you make three times a week without getting tired of it.

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