Squash Blossom Flower!

When you spot these gorgeous squash blossom flowers at any Farmers Market, you must buy them! Even if you don't know what to do with them just yet, still go for it! Luckily I found the perfect recipe  to make from these beautiful blooms but truthfully there are manys ways to eat these flowers, soup, cremas, baked, fried, in a quesadilla etc etc!!

This recipe is stuffed zucchini blossoms:

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ tbspolive oil, plus extra for cooking
• 1small brown onion, finely diced
• 1 ½ tbspfinely chopped fresh dill
• 1 ½ tbspfinely chopped fresh mint
• ¼ tspground cumin
• ¼ tspground black pepper
• ¼ tspsalt
• 1/2 cup tomato passata (uncooked tomato puree or canned crushed tomatos)
• 2 1/2 tbsp water
• (½ cup) medium grain Calrose rice or any preferred rice 
• 20zucchini flowers with baby zucchini attached

Instructions:

Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until almost tender. Add the dill and mint, and mix well. Add the cumin, pepper, salt, tomato passata and water. Increase heat to high, bring to a simmer and add the rice. Cover and lower heat to simmer gently for 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Lightly oil the base of a large baking dish with olive oil. With your fingers, very carefully pull out the inside stamen of each zucchini flower (taking extra care not to rip the outside). Using a teaspoon, carefully add the rice mixture into the flower, close the petals over the rice and place in baking dish. Fill all the flowers and place them side by side in the baking dish to fit snugly. Drizzle some olive oil over the zucchini flowers, sprinkle with salt and pepper and add water in the tray to 1cm in depth.

Preheat the oven to 170ºC and bake the zucchini flowers for 50-60 minutes, or until rice is cooked through and zucchini are tender. 

                                                        Serve and Enjoy!!