vegetarian stuffed marrows

‘What do you do with your marrows?‘ was a question I was asked each time I was spotted struggling off the plot with a marrow under each arm.  ‘Don’t you stuff them?’ was the enquirers puzzled response when I said I mostly made a lemony spread for toast or grated it to hide it in just about everything else.  With so many pumpkins being stored for winter I decided it was time one of my marrow’s got stuffed. The filling for my stuffed marrow was made using leftover veggie bolognese (onion, quorn mince, mushrooms, grated courgette, tinned tomatoes, garlic, herbs) mixed with cooked barley grains.  I pre-baked the scooped out marrow halves for 15 minutes by adding a little water to the roasting dish and covering with foil.  Once filled the stufffed marrows only need to be baked for 20-25 minutes or until the cheese topping has browned.  I’m not a huge fan of lots of gooey melted cheddar so tend to use finely grated parmesan which creates lots of flavour and a crispy topping from much less cheese (good news for the waist line as well as the taste buds!).  We each ate a half of a half of the marrow served with our dwarf green beans and lunched on the other halves the next day.I made a third batch of Marrow Cream this month.  I’m calling it ‘Lemon Surprise‘ from now on: creamy is not how you’d describe this preserve and marrow isn’t a word that tantalises the taste buds is it? I’m sharing this post with Andrea at Grow Your Own who hosts a twice monthly blogging event to celebrate home-grown veg inspired cooking.

UPDATE:  Andrea has posted the October round up here –  13 participants, from 5 countries, using seasonal ingredients.