Grilled courgettes with warm yoghurt and saffron butter

Name: Grilled courgettes with warm yoghurt and saffron butter
Cuisine: European, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern
Ingredients: 30g unsalted butter; 1⁄4 tsp saffron threads, roughly crushed; 4 small, pale green or regular courgettes, tops trimmed slightly and courgettes halved lengthways (600g); 2 1⁄2 tbsp olive oil; 1 tsp cornflour; 300g Greek-style yoghurt; 2 garlic cloves, crushed; 1⁄2 tsp dried mint; 3⁄4 tsp coriander seeds, toasted and roughly crushed with a pestle and mortar; 1 1⁄2 tbsp picked mint leaves; 1⁄2 lemon; salt and black pepper

Instructions

This recipe is inspired by kousa b’laban, a Levantine dish of stuffed baby marrow cooked in yoghurt. In this simplified version the yoghurt sauce and grilled courgettes are cooked separately, then served with a quick saffron butter to spoon on top. There’s a bit of an art to cooking yoghurt without having it curdle; stabilisers such as cornflour and egg yolk tend to do the trick, as does cooking the yoghurt on a moderate heat, stirring continuously and gently warming through without boiling. The result: a silky-smooth and tangy sauce, great for these courgettes but also with other grilled veggies, fatty meats or even as a sauce to pasta.

Updated at: Thu, 17 Apr 2025 09:18:46 GMT