Courgette Rice with Feta & Olives

While searching for ways to use up my courgettes, I came across the BBC Good Food magazine. I tend to associate it with the well-heeled, having found it prominently in Waitrose and the like. They had a recipe that got my attention, since it only needed ingredients that the Sainsbury's Basics range can cover adequately.

The recipe calls for Feta Cheese though, something available only in the form of Greek-style Salad Cheese. PDO labelling regulations stipulate that real Feta cheese has to be made in Greece using at least a mixture of sheep's and goat's milk. As cow's milk is cheaper, the Sainsbury's Basics Greek-style Salad Cheese is not entitled to the shorter label enjoyed by its more upmarket cousins.

It's not going to stop me from enjoying this though.

So roughly chop up the courgette and finely chop some onion. Put the cheese into a bowl of Basics sliced olives and some Basics herb mix. In the meantime, soften the onion in a pan, before adding the courgettes. When the courgettes are slightly brown, add Basics long grain rice and stir until the rice is well coated in oil.

Prepare some vegetable stock from Basics stock cubes, about 1 litre to 250g of rice. Stir in a small amount of stock into the rice until completely absorbed. Repeat this until all the stock has been used. Simmer until rice is tender. Combine with the feta-olive preparation and serve.

This was pretty simple to whip up. The only drawback is the time spent waiting for the rice to cook in the wok. The cheese tasted like most feta cheese I have come across, so no complaints there. Considering how cheap it is, I wouldn't mind exploring other recipes involving feta.

[Special thanks to my flatmate who kindly provided photography for today's blog post.]

Description	Price per Unit	No. of servings	Trade-up Premium	Trade-up Benefits
Courgettes	£1.64	1kg	+£0.11 for 500g	None. Buy loose for £1.80/kg.
Greek Style Salad Cheese	£0.77	200g	+£0.72	Proper feta, from sheep's and goat's milk.