After last year, growing and eating zucchinis became a passion of mine. I was never a huge fan of the tasteless gourd...but I am a born-again zuke lover. This year I couldn't resist buying the flying saucer squash plant. The picture on the tag was not unlike the image above. I think they an adorable edition to our garden. The debate between hubbie and I is are they a summer squash like zucchini? Or are they like a winter squash like butternut or acorn squash? The plant grows like a central bush like a zucchini plant, rather than vine-like as its winter squash cousins do.
I have so many stuffed zucchini recipes put aside, that I thought I would try it out on something more fun...like a flying saucer!
Because it is our first year with flying saucers...I had no idea what was the perfect picking size? When they are cute and small? Or do I neglect them for a few days and let them get as big as my hand (as shown above)?
I started browning some ground beef before I chopped off the top of the squash. I simmered the beef for a few minutes while I dug out the center of the flying saucers. Hope the martians didn't mind the renovations...
I added some chopped tomatoes, cooked brown and wild rice (I had in the fridge), some purple peppers (the turned green upon being cooked) and since we had no onions in the house, I used frozen wild leeks! (we picked them this past May)
In the oven they went...at 375 degrees C and baked for 25 min. Topped with mozzarella, of course.
After almost 35 min, I took them out of the oven, perfectly browned and crisp. (I added a green zucchini and a yellow zucchini because I made too much filling...and truthfully, the flying saucers didn't look big enough to fill both my husband and myself in one meal)
This was one yummy, healthy meal...and it occurred to me that the only thing we didn't grow ourselves was the beef, the cheese and the rice. Pretty low cost meal indeed!
What's the weirdest thing you've ever grown? (could be the name, the shape or the colour)
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