Best ever summer courgette salad

It's summer, the best season for a courgette salad, a quick to prepare, garlic friendly, tasty summer salad.

Best ever summer courgette salad

This zucchini or courgette salad is a quick to prepare, super tasty summer salad. Makes a great BBQ side.

Course Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine Mediterranean, Ramona's Cuisine

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 20

Total Time 25

Servings servings

Calories 164kcal

Author Ramona Sebastian

Equipment

chopping board
knife
grill or pan

Ingredients

4 large courgettes
1 teaspoon salt (sea salt or kosher salt or pink Himalayan salt)
1-3 cloves garlic
3 tablespoon olive oil (or other oil you prefer)
4-5 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1-2 tablespoon cider vinegar
parsley (optional) for garnishing

Metric - US Imperial

Instructions

Wash and slice the courgettes lengthwise. Now, as I mentioned earlier, just cut the courgettes as you wish as long as they are not big chunks. The pieces/slices should not be thicker than 5 mm. Sprinkle half of the salt and set aside.
On medium heat, place a frying pan with 1-2 tablespoon of cooking oil. I normally don't use olive oil for frying as its smoking point it's quite low. I use grapeseed, avocado, coconut or any other oils that have a high smoking point although here is low heat and shallow frying so realistically, any oil will do. Just make sure the oil doesn't smoke.
Start shallow frying the courgettes slightly only until it gets a little colour. Cook them in one layer and do not pile them up as they will get all mushy. Cook them little by little. You could grill them too if you have a griddle pan just do that. It is even better.
Take out the fried zucchini slices and place them in a larger salad bowl. Repeat this until they are all done.
Set them aside for a few minutes to cool.
Meanwhile, peel the garlic, smash and chop finely. Use as much garlic as you like.
In a small bowl, make the vinaigrette by mixing the 2 types of vinegar, salt and finely chopped or mashed garlic.
Add the vinaigrette to the courgettes and mix every few minutes so that they coat well and will marinade nicely.
It is ready to serve immediately as this salad can be served both warm or fridge cold. It can last up to 3 days in the fridge. Just add a little vinegar to refresh it if it happens to last and have any for the next day!

Notes

The way you decide to cut the courgettes is entirely up to you whether you chop them or slice them lengthwise but the ultimate result is the same and can only differ slightly in aspect but taste-wise will be exactly the same.

Some fried courgette slices on a white plate

I usually prepare this zucchini at the weekends (because of the garlic, you know....) unless on holiday when I make it whenever I feel like it... but truthfully some chewing gum and a good tooth brushing could do the cover-up trick.

Nutrition