Toula Vardakis picks fresh zucchini blossoms in her inner-city garden, then stuffs them with minced meat and rice – a Greek specialty.

Evangelos Vardakis is originally from Crete but has been in Australia for over 35 years. He and his wife Toula have a garden at home in Kingsford where they grow vegetables and herbs.

Every Dec/Jan they pick zucchini from the garden, complete with flowers and stuff them with rice and mince or rice and herbs. If they are not going to cook with the flowers on the day, they clean them and then insert one into another so the flowers do not close. Leaving some air in the bag they freeze them until they need to use them.

The Vardakises also produces quite a lot of zucchini which they grate, freeze and use as they need it.

Recipes:

Stuffed zucchini flowers