Incredible Zucchini Slice

It's back to school and work and you may be looking for lunchbox inspiration. Look no further than this summer favourite: zucchini slice. This slice feeds many and uses up half a kilo of zucchini and is full of wonderful vegetables and bacon. It is delicious warm from the oven but also incredibly tasty cold which can only be a bonus for hungry lunchbox hounds! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader and one of the most popular on the blog.

I got this recipe from Dear Reader Jaqi. She's the lovely lady who gave me her mother's recipe for zucchini pickles (try these, they're SO good!). She put a picture up on Instagram and I asked her for the recipe as it looked so delicious. It is also easy to make vegetarian.

This is a versatile slice and I adjusted her recipe for my taste and the vegetables I had. I had some fresh organic corn that I bought in the Blue Mountains and I doubled the zucchini level because I wanted to use up a lot of zucchini. I added quite a bit of chilli because chilli sauce runs through my veins. I wasn't sure how it would taste but I was astonished at how tasty it was. And yes this is a pushy recipe. I ate a quarter of it in the first day for lunch and dinner!

Even though we've been together over 10 years there are still times when Mr NQN will say something to me that surprises me. "I don't like cheese and chilli," he said to me one day. "Whaat?" I said, "It's such a great combo-creamy and spicy!". "Naaah," he said in that low key way that he has while shaking his head.

I then started asking him about other things, and the subject turned to the music that was playing. I often joke that I could do a PhD on celebrities because devour celeb blogs. And Beyonce was playing.

"Don't tell me you don't know Beyonce?" I asked him. "Yeah she's the bee lady," he said. I laughed, "So what about Jay Z?"

"Ahh isn't he married to the bee lady?"

I was on a roll. "Okay how about Kim Kardashian?" He thought about it for a split second, "Isn't that the lady with the ass?"

"And Kanye West?" to which he answered "He likes fur pillows and marble conferences tables."

If you'd have asked him his opinion on this zucchini slice he'd have two words. "Bloody good," is what he would say.

So tell me Dear Reader, do you follow celeb antics? Does chilli runs through your veins? Or what food runs through your veins?

Zucchini Slice

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 55 minutes

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
• 300g/10.6ozs bacon, rind removed, finely chopped (you can sub bacon with feta if you want to make it vegetarian)
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 500g/1.1lb zucchini, grated and spread out on paper towels tp absorb extra moisture
• 2/3 cup corn kernels
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 cup grated cheese
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup parsley, roughly chopped
• 2-3 red chillies, chopped (optional)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• Pinch of sugar

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F and line a 20x30cms/8x12inch rectangular tin on the base and sides with parchment. Heat a frying pan on medium high heat and sauté bacon and onion until cooked through and liquid evaporates. If you are making this vegetarian just cook the onions and crumble in the feta with the zucchini.

Step 2 - Place the garlic, zucchini, corn, flour, cheese, parsley, chillies in a large bowl. Whisk the eggs and milk together and add this to the bowl along with the cooked bacon and onion, salt, pepper and sugar. Mix until combined and then spread out into the prepared tin. Bake for 40 minutes.