These rich and indulgent brownies make a real treat either with afternoon tea, or with vanilla ice-cream and chocolate sauce as a great dinner party pudding.

They’re are great to make in the summer when you have a large amount of courgettes and start to run out of ideas as to what to do with them, and I promise you they are so chocolaty that you will not even know that they contain healthy vegetables.

I decided to make a shortcut by using chilled pre-cooked beetroot, but not the one in vinegar, that’s not nice!

275g good, dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, broken into pieces

275g unsalted butter, cut into cubes, plus more for greasing

275g soft brown sugar

3 free-range large eggs

150g self-raising flour, sifted

125g beetroot, boiled until just cooked then peeled and grated

125g courgettes, grated

1tsp vanilla essence

Method

Preheat the oven to 160c, 320f, gas 3

Grease a baking tin approx 23 x 23cms and line the bottom with baking parchment.

Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and melt over a pan of simmering water, allow to cool slightly. I decided to melt mine gently in the microwave, on defrost setting, firstly for 5 minutes, gave it a stir then another 5 minutes.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a bowl until combined. Pour in the melted chocolate and butter and stir well until smooth and creamy. Gently fold in the flour, beetroot and courgettes.

Be careful not to over mix the mixture or it will make the brownies tough.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth over the top with a spatula .

Bake for 25 – 30 minutes approximately, a knife inserted into the middle should come out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Be careful not to overcook them or they will lose their delicious fudgy texture.

Remove the tin from the oven and leave on a wire rack to cool before cutting into 12 generous squares.