Courgette, chive & cheddar soda bread
another way with courgettes
Another week, another way with courgettes. This time: coarsely grated, salted, wrung of their liquid, and mixed into a herby, spiced, seeded soda bread.
For those who may not have made soda bread before, please see this as an enthusiastic suggestion to do so. There is very little faff involved: everything comes together in one mixing bowl without kneading; there is no proving to impatiently wait for; there is no precise shaping to be done. As such, this is something I often make as a way to ease into the weekend, pottering in my PJs, with my first cup of tea of the day brewing and the radio murmuring in the background. After relatively little input, the alchemy of such simple baking prevails and I am rewarded with a warm loaf for breakfast.
This is a longstanding favourite of mine, I hope you love it as much as I do.
Courgette, chive & cheddar soda bread
As with all soda bread, this is best eaten warm from the oven. After that, I find it’s best to slice up the rest of the loaf for the freezer then pop slices straight into the toaster from frozen as and when.
Makes one loaf
2 courgettes (about 500g), coarsely grated
125g mature cheddar, coarsely grated
1 green chilli, finely chopped
Bunch of chives (about 30g), finely sliced
400g plain flour or white spelt flour
50g polenta
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp sesame seeds, plus extra for topping
1 tbsp nigella seeds, plus extra for topping
300g kefir or natural yoghurt
Put the grated courgettes in a colander in the sink. Sprinkle generously with salt and scrunch with your hands. Leave to drain for 10-15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200C fan and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, mix the flour, polenta, bicarbonate of soda, sesame seeds, nigella seeds and 1 tsp salt.
Transfer the courgettes to a clean tea towel and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. When you think you’ve squeezed enough, try to squeeze even more (this quantity of courgettes gives out about 200ml liquid). Add the courgettes to the dry ingredients and use your hands to incorporate until evenly distributed. Add the cheddar, chilli and most of the chives (hold back on some for serving) then mix again. Finally, add the kefir and use your hands, a wooden spoon or a spatula to mix.
Working as swiftly as possible, shape roughly into a round loaf, transfer to the lined tray and use a bench scraper or sharp knife to score a cross on the top. Top with extra sesame seeds and nigella seeds. Bake for 30 minutes then lower the temperature to 180C fan and bake for a further 10 minutes until deeply golden and hollow sounding when tapped on the base.
Allow to cool for about 10-15 minutes then serve warm with lots of butter, the remaining chives and flaky salt.
Bits & bobs
Something a little different to do with cherries
The dos and don’ts of Greek salad
In case you missed it: last week’s suggestion for courgettes
I love the sound of this! 💚