Courgette salad is bright, flavourful, quick & simple to make and incredibly versatile. With flavours reminiscent of pesto this raw courgette salad is good enough to serve alongside steak, chicken or fish, but equally good on a table of mixed small plates.
Try it with pastry olives, no-mayo potato salad, loaded potato skins and salami & goats cheese bake.
🔍 Recipe Snapshot: Courgette Salad
- ⏱️ Prep Time: 10 minutes
- 🍳 Salting Time: 15 minutes
- 🕒 Total Time: 25 minutes
- 👥 Servings: 3 (as a side dish)
- 📊 Calories: 188 kcal per serving
- 🔥 Cook Method: chopping, grating, no-cook
- ❄️ Frozen Option: ❌ Not suitable for freezing
- 👩🍳 Flavour Profile: Fresh, herby and cheesy
- ⭐ Difficulty: Easy
- 🥗 Pairs Well With: Grilled fish, chicken or steak
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Why I Love This Courgette Salad
- Simplicity: The ingredients are simple but they blend together in such a way that you feel as if you're munching on something extra special.
- Quick & Easy: Apart from slicing the & salting the courgette, all there is to do is tenderly toss the ingredients together with your hands right before serving.
- Flavour: Packed into this salad are pine nuts, fresh basil and extra virgin olive oil. It's a little reminiscent of pesto... only not chopped up and with plenty of courgette thrown into the mix.
- Colour: Its bright, bold and very colourful.
- Versatile: Great as a side dish or as part of a small plates meal.
Ingredients Notes
Courgette: I used standard green courgette when photographing this recipe, but you can use yellow courgette if desired or a mix of the two.
Basil: Use fresh basil. Dried or frozen basil is not a suitable substitute in this basil salad with courgette.
Cheese: Parmigiano Reggiano (parmesan) is an Italian hard cheese with plenty of flavour, making it ideal for this salad. It should be grated finely.
How To Make Courgette Salad (Step-By-Step Instructions)
- Step 1: Begin by chopping the end of the courgette at a steep angle. Now finely slice it on this diagonal. Aim for slices around 1-1.5mm thick.
- Step 2: Put a sheet of kitchen towel into the base of a colander. Layer the courgette slices up, sprinkling with the salt as you go. Toss lightly and leave to sit for 15 minutes.
- Step 3: After this time the courgette should be slightly limp. Rinse thoroughly in fresh, cold water and drain well on kitchen towel.
- Step 4: Put the courgette slices into a wide bowl. Add the basil leaves, pine nuts, grated cheese and olive oil and mix gently (use your hands).
Season to taste and serve immediately.
Expert Tips
- Use a mandolin: If you have one, a mandolin makes short work of slicing the courgette. Failing that, use a sharp knife and slice extremely thinly or use a Y-shaped vegetable peeler.
- Use freshly grated parmesan: Store bought grated parmesan is much drier and not recommended for this recipe.
- Toss gently: It is very easy to bruise basil leaves, so toss using your hands rather than forks and spoons.
Frequently Asked Questions
No, this basil salad with courgette is not suitable to make in advance as the basil will wilt. You can, however, prepare the courgette up to 24 hours in advance ready to toss with the other ingredients just before serving.
Yes, you can. Simply slice the courgette thinly lengthways and proceed with the recipe.
There is no need to peel the courgette for this salad. The outer skin adds colour to this dish and also boosts the fibre content.
A budget friendly option would be Grana Padano which has a similar but slightly milder flavour profile to Parmigiano Reggiano. Alternatively, Pecorino Romano would lend a sharp and tangy flavour to this courgette & basil salad.
Variations
- Make it veggie: Parmesan cheese is not suitable for vegetarians so you will need to swap it for vegetarian Italian hard cheese (supermarkets usually stock some close to the parmesan).
- Make it into lunch: To make a stand alone main salad add in any or all of the following:
- Cooked chicken
- Crispy bacon
- Sliced new potatoes
- Crunchy croutons
- Add spice: Swap 10ml of the extra virgin olive oil for chilli oil.
- More cheese:
- Rip a mozzarella ball into pieces and mix into your raw courgette salad.
- Dot spoonfuls of creamy ricotta cheese over the top of your salad.
- Swap the Basil: Mint is a great alternative for this salad.
- Switch the nuts: Replace the pine nuts with roughly chopped hazelnuts or almonds.
More Salad Recipes
Have you tried my other salad recipes? Here are a handful of my favourites:
If you have made this courgette salad please leave a review to let me know if you enjoyed it.
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📖 Recipe
Courgette Salad (raw courgette, basil, pine nuts and Parmesan)
Ingredients
- 350 g Courgette
- ½ teaspoon Sea salt
- 2 tablespoons Pine nuts
- 30 g Parmesan cheese Finely grated
- 20 g Basil leaves fresh
- 2 tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Begin by chopping the end of the courgette at a steep angle. Now finely slice it on this diagonal. Aim for slices around 1-1.5mm thick. If you have a mandolin this will enable you to achieve lovely even slices.
- Put a sheet of kitchen towel into the base of a colander. Layer the courgette slices up, sprinkling with the salt as you go. Toss lightly and leave to sit for 15 minutes.
- After this time the courgette should be slightly limp. Rinse thoroughly in fresh, cold water and drain well on kitchen towel.
- Put the courgette slices into a wide bowl. Add the basil leaves, pine nuts, grated cheese and olive oil and mix gently (use your hands).
- Season to taste and serve immediately.
Notes
- Use a mandolin: If you have one, a mandolin makes short work of slicing the courgette. Failing that, use a sharp knife and slice extremely thinly or use a Y-shaped vegetable peeler.
- Use freshly grated parmesan: Store bought grated parmesan is much drier and not recommended for this recipe.
- Toss gently: It is very easy to bruise basil leaves, so toss using your hands rather than forks and spoons.
Variations
- Make it veggie: Parmesan cheese is not suitable for vegetarians so you will need to swap it for vegetarian Italian hard cheese (supermarkets usually stock some close to the parmesan).
- Make it into lunch: To make a stand alone main salad add in any or all of the following:
- Cooked chicken
- Crispy bacon
- Sliced new potatoes
- Crunchy croutons
- Add spice: Swap 10ml of the extra virgin olive oil for chilli oil.
- More cheese:
- Rip a mozzarella ball into pieces and mix into your raw courgette salad.
- Dot spoonfuls of creamy ricotta cheese over the top of your salad.
- Swap the Basil: Mint is a great alternative for this salad.
- Switch the nuts: Replace the pine nuts with roughly chopped hazelnuts or almonds.
Arabella says
This salad is simple but absolutely delicious & contains ingredients that I always have on hand - brilliant - thankyou!
Jane Saunders says
Thanks for letting me know you've enjoyed it. It makes my day to hear from happy readers.
Meghan | Fox and Briar says
I love that this is kind of like deconstructed pesto! This salad looks so fresh and healthy, totally delish!
Jane Saunders says
Thanks Meghan. I'm making it again over the weekend 🙂 🙂 🙂
Christine | Mid-Life Croissant says
I'm feeling guilty now because I've been drooling over this salad for a week and I'm only just getting here to comment on it. I love those zucchini ribbons. Adding mandolin slicer to my list now. And the pine nuts are inspired. This is exactly the simple, clean salad I've been looking for. Thanks for linking up at #SaucySaturdays.
Jane Saunders says
Thanks Christine. I never mind when a comment is received, sometimes weeks just runaway with themselves. If you get a good mandolin slicer you could go for lovely long lengthways ribbons - mine is not that good and I do value my fingers rather highly
Erin @ Thanks for Cookin'! says
This looks divine! Pesto is one of my favorites so this deconstructed version has my mouth watering. Beautifully done.
Jane Saunders says
Thanks Erin. I'm with you - anything related to pesto can only be truly marvelous