A Recipe for Tasty Pasta Salad (with courgettes)
This vegan pasta salad (Rainbow Plant Life) is a good way to use up courgettes (conventional pesto is not even vegetarian, it contains calf rennet). This pesto is made by caramelising chunked courgettes with garlic, salt and red pepper flakes. Top with sliced cherry tomatoes and chickpeas.
Avoid courgettes that are wrinkled or have yellow skin or black spots. Store in the fridge. Choose organic to avoid cross-pollinated seed batches that carry a toxin (Tim Dowling writes how he poisoned himself with homegrown courgettes).
Read up on food safety for people and pets. Bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) and tomato/citrus/rhubarb scraps (acids may harm compost creatures).
Fully remove tinned lids (or pop ring-pulls back over holes) before recycling, to avoid wildlife getting trapped.
It’s not just cheap and filling, but high in natural protein thanks to the chickpeas, so all the ingredients are easy to find.
Courgettes (called ‘zucchini’ in North America) are quite popular in England, especially for Mediterranean recipes like ratatouille. Related to squash, the smallest courgettes tend to be most tasty (if not harvested, they grow into marrows).
Look in stores for Yorkshire Pasta Company or The Northern Pasta Co (both are made with British wheat, and sold in plastic-free packaging).
Conventional Parmesan is not vegetarian (it contains a cheese that by law, contains calf rennet). Instead, just grate good vegan cheese over the top.
