Working with the seasons has so many advantages, it forces us to be creative and we often have chance to forage! In Croatia we have lots of courgettes on Vis Island in the summer, or Zucchini, as our American and Australian guests pointed out last night. Just a multi cultural marrow with many different names! Determined to find new ways to enjoy this vegetable, we created a new vegan starter. We love it when a recipe experiment goes well and this one was a huge hit at dinner. Its super fresh, requires no cooking and the perfect starter after a day of being active on the kayaks.
Serves 4
For the Courgette Carpaccio…
1 tbls olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 tbls fresh basil
Juice of a lemon
Salt and pepper
2 Courgettes
A handful of Rucola
Large bunch parsley and a handful of basil
100g sunflower seeds
Pinch of chilli flakes
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper to taste
100ml water
80ml olive oil
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons of capers
100g Almonds
1 small garlic clove
50ml olive oil
Juice of half a lemon juice
50ml water
First make you cheese, by whizzing all your almond cheese ingredients in a blender until reasonably smooth. Allow the cheese to set in the fridge for at least an hour.
Rinse out your blender and then whizz all your pesto ingredients, checking for seasoning and adding more salt, pepper and possibly chilli to taste. Put the pesto in the fridge to chill with the cheese.
You can use the blender again, you don’t even have to rinse it! Whizz all your carpaccio ingredients except for the courgettes and the rucola. Grate your courgettes and put them in a clean tea towel to squeeze out any excess water. Add the courgettes to a bowl and then add the rest of the blended ingredients to marinade the courgettes for about 30 minutes.
To assemble, we put two spoonfuls of marinaded courgettes onto a plate, we use a chef’s ring to make it as beautiful as possible. Add a spoonful of the caper pesto, a small handful of fresh rucola leaves and then a slice of the almond cheese. It’s a very fresh, green and healthy looking dish that was a big hit with our guests, resulting in a pretty starter that also tastes delicious and is plant based.
If you make this starter and share it on Social Media, please remember to tag #relaxinglyactive. If you are interested in a holiday in Croatia that combines great food with yoga, kayaking, SUP and biking, check us out at WearActive.