Recipe: vegetarian stuffed marrow
Stuffed marrow is one of my favourite meals. I first tried it when Scott's Mum cooked some for us a few years ago.
She stuffed hers with pork mince and I loved it at the time but I can't stomach minced meat anymore (nothing to do with her cooking, just my inner vegetarian coming out). Now I make a lightly spiced bean stuffing instead. Who could resist the allure of tomatoey beans covered in bubbling cheese? Not me!
We've grown three marrows this year and stuffed every single one. Partly because I don't know what else to do with them but also because stuffed marrow is really really delicious. Sadly it feels like a bit of an old fashioned or underrated dinner nowadays and I haven't seen any marrows for sale in the supermarket this year! Surely someone other than allotment owners must be growing this vegetable.
Ingredients
- 1 marrow
- 1 tin (4oog) chopped tomatoes
- 1 tin (400g) kidney, borlotti or cannelini beans
- 1 onion
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 red pepper
- 2 teaspoons milled flax
- 1 tbsp dried mixd herbs OR
- 2 handfuls of fresh herbs — thyme, oregano and marjoram are a nice mix but use whatever you have to hand
- Half a red chilli/pinch of chilli powder
- 100g grated cheddar (more if you like)
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of pepper
Makes 4 large marrow rings.
Vegetarian stuffed marrow recipe
No vegetarians were harmed in the making of this recipe…
Preheat your oven to 200C/180C fan, gas mark 6.
1. Prepare marrow rings
Leave the skin on and chop your marrow in to 1.5 inch slices. Scoop out the centre and arrange flat in a baking dish — it is important they sit flat or the filling will spill out.
2. Prepare the filling
Heat the olive oil in a pan. Fry your chopped onions and peppers with garlic and chilli until just softened. Add the tomato puree, stir to coat and cook for 2 minutes. Once you have a nice paste add the chopped tomatoes and herbs, flax and then beans. Simmer until saucy and season well. Marrow doesn't have much flavour so don't be afraid to add a few extra herbs, salt or pepper.
3. Spoon in to rings
Fill the centre of each marrow ring with bean mixture. It will sink down as it cooks so pile the beans nice and high. Don't add the cheese yet!
4. Bake
- Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes remove the foil and sprinkle grated cheese over each ring. Be as generous or as frugal as you like with the cheese. We love it so ours are always cheesy!
- Bake for a further 15 minutes uncovered until the cheese is bubbling and golden and the marrow is tender.
5. Enjoy
Serve and enjoy!
On this occasion we ate ours with homemade chips — perfect for soaking up any leftover sauce.
In case you were wondering, the world marrow record is 68kg. Makes our 2kg marrow look like a peanut. Oh well, there's always next year.
