Baked Stuffed Courgette Flowers

I love this recipe for courgette or zucchini flowers because you bake the flowers rather than frying them and they nestle in a bed of really tasty rice.

8 baby courgettes, with flowers
4 sprigs of fresh mint
150 g fresh or frozen peas
100 g labneh or other soft cheese
50 g hard cheese (optional)
1 lemon
400 g ripe cherry tomatoes
4 spring onions
8 black olives
1 fresh red chilli
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil
red wine vinegar
300 g basmati rice

Put the mint leaves, peas and cheeses into a food processor. Finely grate in the lemon zest and squeeze in the juice, then add a pinch of black pepper and blitz until smooth.

Carefully fill each courgette flower with the mixture, then press and pat the petals back together to seal.

Halve the tomatoes, trim and slice the spring onions and chop the olives. Deseed and roughly chop the chilli, then peel and roughly chop the garlic. Put everything into a large roasting tray.

Drizzle with 2 tbsp each of oil and vinegar, then season with pepper and mix together well.

Stir in the rice and 700ml of boiling water, then place over the hob and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally.

Lightly push the courgettes into the rice, and bake at the bottom of the oven for 20 minutes at 200C, or until golden.