Courgette Waffles

Why should breakfast take all the waffle glory? They can be just as delicious for a casual savoury meal too.

Add courgette and you have a scrumptious savoury meal topped with just about anything you fancy (waffley versatile).

Now, you’d never know there were veggies in the batter except for the odd flicker of green skin in the batter. They hold together really well (the rest of the ingredients help with that) and are neither super-sweet or bland..they are just right.

Courgette: If you haven’t already figured, courgette and zucchini are one in the same. They may have yellow or green skin, but they’ll all the same. Marrow, is a gigantic courgette (which is easy to morph from one to the other virtually overnight if you have ever grown these yourself) however the skin will be tough and the seeds bitter. With courgette you can eat the lot – or in this case, grate the lot with a cheese grater.

Toppings: Feta, chargrilled capsicum, avocado, spring onion, diced tomatoes, caramelised onion, spinach…..just about anything you can imagine. You know that your 5+ a day are going to be smashed in this sitting. With an extra drizzle of your favourite dressing (I’d recommend homemade curry mayonnaise, vinaigrette or even maple syrup) any topping selection tastes like a treat.

Waffle machine: Am I kidding? No. Now I wouldn’t encourage you to go and buy one new necessarily, but many do and end up gifting it to a charity store, so go to a charity store where you can pick one up for next to nothing. What’s so special about waffles? Well, they look a bit fancy for a start and often they are shaped so that each ‘waffle’ can be separated into quarters, so you only need to serve yourself up what you can eat.  Will your life end without a waffle maker? No. You can turn these into savoury ‘hotcakes’ and panfry in butter in batches (approx 1/4 cup of batter per hotcake).

Courgette Waffles

Serves: 4-6

Prep time: 5 minutes
Chill time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 courgettes, grated
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 50g butter, melted
• 2 cups milk

Method

1. Grate courgettes and sprinkle with salt, approx 1/4 tsp. Set aside for 10 minutes.
2. In a bowl mix dry ingredients – flour, sugar and baking powder.  Add lightly beaten eggs, melted butter and milk. Combine well.
3. Squeeze any moisture out of the courgettes (a bit messy, but can be done by hand) and add to the mix. Combine well into a batter and chill fo 30 minutes (you and the batter).
4. Coat waffle grill with a fine coat of oil spray, or if cooking in a fry pan grease with butter over a medium heat. Add 1/4 cup of batter per ‘waffle’ quarter, or directly into the pan, and cook until golden.
5. Top with your favourite savoury topping.

Enjoy. Eat what you can, freeze the waffles you can’t.