Your courgette plants are fruiting prolifically, you're picking the little beauties every day, and the more you pick the more there seem to be.  Very gratifying....but what do you do with them all?  You don't want stir fried courgettes/ratatouille/soup/courgette surprise every day, and they don't freeze very well as they are (they collapse, going soft and mushy).  So what do you do with them?

 

They will keep in the fridge for several days without much loss of taste or texture, so you don't have to eat them straight away. 

 

Using them in a recipe and then freezing the cooked dish is a much better option than simply blanching them.  Ratatouille, made with red onions, aubergine, mushrooms, tomatoes and of course the courgettes, cooked slowly in a pan with a glug of red wine, balsamic vinegar or Worcestershire sauce and some chopped fresh parsley and basil, freezes very well in plastic containers.  So does courgette soup....diced potatoes give the soup some added body, fry them gently in olive oil with chopped onions before adding the diced courgettes and vegetable stock.  Once cooked and cooled, liquidize then freeze in a suitable plastic container.  To use, defrost, place in a saucepan and heat through, then stir in some cream cheese and fresh herbs.

 

Grate the courgettes and add to cottage pie or chilli, to add an extra vegetable (chances are fussy veg-hating children won't even notice!).  It will also help to bulk out the meat and make it go further, and of course the dishes will freeze perfectly.

 

You could also try making a courgette cake......very similar to a carrot cake, using grated courgette (no need to peel) - the courgette makes it very moist.  Lots of recipes for the cake can be found on the internet.  Wrap the cooled cake well in foil before freezing. 

 

If you have neighbours who also grow their own vegetables, you could swap with them - your courgettes for their French beans, for example.

 

Of course, if you have so many courgettes that you're sick of the sight of them, you could always bag them up and sell them at the garden gate!