I discovered this salad in a Cook with M&S promo leaflet I picked up in store. It was the only seasonal dish I could find in it!
The best squash to use is Crown Prince, which we have in Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week, but any full-flavoured variety will do.
If you can’t get blood oranges, which are in season at this time of year, use other decent ones instead. I’ve also adapted the recipe to include pumpkin or pomegranate seeds, oriental salad leaves or rocket, and parsley or coriander. It’s up to you.
Serves 6
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 35-40 minutes
Ingredients
800g full-flavoured squash (such as Crown Prince) peeled, deseeded and cut into 4cm cubes
3 sprigs thyme
2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
3 tbsp olive oil
200g couscous
5 oranges – ideally blood oranges
75g pomegranate or pumpkin seeds
100g rocket or oriental salad leaves
small handful chopped parsley or coriander
200g feta cheese, crumbled
Method
Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Put squash, thyme and garlic in a roasting tin and season. Drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil, then roast for 35-45 minutes. Squeeze the garlic from its skin.
Meanwhile put the couscous in a bowl and add 100ml boiling water and set aside for 15 minutes, then fluff with a fork. Peel and slice four of the oranges. Squeeze the juice from the remaining orange, whisk this with the remaining olive oil and season.
Stir the pomegranate or pumpkin seeds, salad leaves and parsley into the couscous, reserving some to scatter over. Divide the mixture among six plates and top with the squash, orange slices, feta, seeds, salad and parsley. Drizzle with the dressing and serve.
Mark, one of our core group members, recommends this soup recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Great Britain. We don’t bother with the cream though,” Mark says, “as it’s rich enough!” Although the recipe uses the butternut variety, any decent squash would do.
Serves 4-6
Preparation time: 15-20 minutes
Cooking time: 60 minutes
Ingredients
1 squash (roughly 1kg), peeled, de-seeded and chopped into 2.5 cm chunks
3 good eating apples, peeled, cored and quartered
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 or 2 fresh red chillies, halved and de-seeded
4 cloves garlic, unpeeled and bashed
Olive oil
Sea salt and ground pepper
Pinch of coriander seeds
Few sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
3 heaped tablespoons pumpkin seeds
Pinch of cayenne pepper
800ml cups organic vegetable or chicken stock
150ml single cream
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6. Put the chunks of squash, apple, onion, chillies and garlic on to a baking sheet and drizzle with a good amount of olive oil. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper and a pinch of coriander seeds and a little chopped rosemary. Toss everything together so all the veg is nicely coated then cook for around 45 minutes or until everything is cooked through, intensely golden and delicious.
Toss the pumpkin seeds with salt, pepper, olive oil and the cayenne. Spread on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 10-15 minutes then put aside for later.
Put some of the roasted veg into a blender, making sure you squeeze the garlic flesh out of its skin first. Add a swig of stock and gently blitz until smooth and lovely. Put this into a large pan while you blitz the rest. Pour in most of the cream and bring to a simmer over a medium to low heat.
Have a taste, season to perfection. To serve, divide between bowls and add a swirl of cream and a sprinkling of roasted seeds.
Our professional grower Bridget Gould acquired this simple recipe from a Bangladeshi friend. It’s the perfect antidote to rich festive food!
Serves 4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 30-40 minutes
Ingredients
1 medium squash, peeled and de-seeded
2 onions, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
½ tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp turmeric
2 cardamom, seeds only
2-3 chillies, deseeded and chopped
juice of ½ small lemon
small bunch fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 tbsp oil
Method
Heat the oil and fry off the spices, taking care not to burn them. Add onions and garlic and fry until soft. If dry add a bit of water.
Next, cut the squash into 2cm chunks and add to the pan, mixing through well. Season with salt and pepper and simmer until the squash is tender. Just before serving add the lemon juice and fresh coriander.
Don’t be put off by the rather long list of ingredients, the result is very tasty. I was a bit dubious about the dried apricots and was pleased to be proved wrong. I have given you Frank, my husband’s, version of Yotam Ottolenghi’s original recipe. We didn’t have preserved lemon skin so Frank substituted grated lemon zest and the juice of half a lemon.
Serves 4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
2 Tbsp olive oil
2-3 banana shallots, peeled and chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tsp ground cumin
4 whole cardamom pods, crushed to release the seeds, pods discarded
salt and black pepper
2 1/2 Tbsp harissa paste
1/2 tsp rose water
500 ml vegetable stock
1 large butternut squash, peeled and cut into 4 cm dice
400 g tinned, cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed
7 dried apricots, thinly sliced
20 g preserved lemon skin, roughly chopped
10 g coriander leaves, roughly chopped
150 g Greek yoghurt
Method
In a large saute pan for which you have a lid, heat the oil on a medium-high flame. Add the shallots and fry for 7-8 minutes, stirring every so often, until soft and caramelised, then stir in the garlic, spices, half a teaspoon of salt and plenty of pepper, and fry for 2 minutes longer.
Add the harissa, rose water and stock, bring to a boil, then add the chickpeas, apricots and lemon and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Add the squash and simmer until the squash is tender, adding a little more water if necessary. Sprinkle with the coriander and serve with some yoghurt alongside.
The compact Golden Nugget and green acorn squashes in our veg boxes this week are delicious cut in half, seasoned and roasted. You can enjoy them just as they are as a simple accompaniment to grilled chicken or sausages. The roasted halves are transformed into a more substantial main dish if you fill them with stuffing and roast for a further 15 minutes.
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes – 1 hour
Ingredients
2 Golden Nugget or acorn squash, cut in half lengthwise
50g butter
salt and black pepper
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg or cinnamon
Method
Scrub the squashes clean, then cut in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds and soft fibres and score the flesh with a sharp knife to ensure the heat gets to the inside. Dot the cavity with butter and season with salt, black pepper and the cinnamon or nutmeg.
Place the squash halves cut sides upwards in an ovenproof dish. Bake in an oven preheated to 200C/Gas 6 for 45 minutes until the flesh feels tender when pierced with a knife.
For the stuffing:
There are lots of easy ways to stuff squash once you’ve roasted them, depending on what ingredients you’ve got to hand. If you intend to stuff them, omit the nutmeg or cinnamon at the initial roasting stage.
Nigel Slater suggests a spicy caramelised onion filling.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recommends a blue cheese and walnuts or Gruyere cheese and crispy bacon filling.
Bridget Gould, one of our professional growers, has recommended this recipe from Felicity Cloake in The Guardian. Looks like Sunday lunch is sorted in our household!
Serves 4
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
800g peeled and seeded pumpkin or squash
2 carrots, about 200g, peeled
4 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
400g tin of plum tomatoes
100g red lentils
small bunch of coriander
Method
Heat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. Cut the squash and carrots into chunks about 4 cm square and toss with a little oil. Spread out on a baking sheet and cook for about 30 minutes until tender and very slightly charred.
Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat and cook the onion until soft, golden and beginning to caramelise. Stir in half a teaspoon of paprika and cook for another minute or so, then tip in the tomatoes and mash up. Stir in the lentils and about a litre of water and bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes, until the lentils are soft.
Add the roasted vegetables to the pan and take off the heat. Whisk together the remaining teaspoon of paprika with the remaining tablespoon of oil and a pinch of salt. Puree the soup and season to taste, adding a little more water if you prefer it thinner. Roughly chop the coriander. Divide between bowls and drizzle over the paprika oil. Top with coriander and serve.
This simple one-person meal from Cook by Jamie Oliver could easily be scaled up to feed more people. The recipe calls for butternut squash but I’m going to use the uchiki kuri squash in my veg box instead.
Serves 1
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 25-35 minutes
Ingredients
1 chicken breast with skin on
1/4 medium butternut squash
1/2 fresh red chilli
leaves from a couple of sprigs of fresh marjoram or oregano
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
a little double cream
freshly grated nutmeg
a little olive oil
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas mark 6.
Put the chicken breast, with its skin left on, in a bowl. Deseed and slice up 1/2 a fresh red chilli and add to the bowl with the leaves from a couple of sprigs of fresh marjoram or oregano, a pinch of sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Toss together then place the chicken breast and flavourings from the bowl into a snug fitting baking dish.
Cut a medium butternut squash into quarters. Remove the seeds and slice one quarter of the squash as finely as you can. Snugly fit the squash slices around the chicken and carefully pour a little double cream around the squash (not on the chicken).
Season with freshly grated nutmeg and salt and pepper, then drizzle with some olive oil and cook in the middle of the oven for 25 to 35 minutes, until the chicken is golden brown.
My husband found this recipe on the BBC Good Food website. It was tasty served with a green salad on the side.
Serves 6
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Ingredients
1 squash, weighing about 1kg, chopped into chunks
2 tbsp olive oil
200 ml tub crème fraiche
50 g finely grated parmesan cheese
250 g tub ricotta cheese
small bunch sage leaves, half chopped, half whole
12 sheets fresh lasagne
Method
Heat the oven to 220°C/Gas mark 7. Toss the squash together with the olive oil in a roasting tin. Roast the squash for 30 minutes until soft and golden. While the squash is roasting, mix the crème fraiche with half the parmesan, then set aside.
When the squash is ready, leave to cool slightly, then peel the skin away from the flesh. In a separate bowl beat the ricotta with the chopped sage and the remaining parmesan and fold through the squash with some seasoning, trying not to break it up too much.
Assemble the bake by spreading a little of the crème fraiche mix over a gratin dish. Then lay some of the lasagne sheets over and splodge some of the ricotta and squash mix over the pasta with more crème fraiche. Use all the ricotta mix to fill the bake, but make sure you keep some crème fraiche for the top.
Finally spread the crème fraiche over the top layer of lasagne, then scatter with the whole sage leaves. Bake for 25 minutes until bubbling and golden, then serve cut into squares.
This delicious recipe appeared recently in Thomasina Mier’s column in The Guardian magazine. It uses three of the veg in our boxes this week. We happened to have rigatoni in the cupboard but this week I might be tempted to try it with penne instead.
Serves 4-6
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes
Ingredients
600g butternut, acorn or onion squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks
200g cherry tomatoes, halved
3 garlic cloves, bashed and peeled
1 pinch dried chilli
1/2 bunch sage, leaves picked
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
200g kale
400g rigatoni
250g ricotta
125g grated parmesan
Method
Preheat the oven to 220°C/Gas mark 7. Put the squash, tomatoes, garlic, chilli and sage in a roasting tray, season generously, then drizzle over the oil and mix with your hands so that every chunk of squash is coated. Roast for 25-35 minutes, shaking the tray occasionally, until the squash is a little crisp and the tomatoes are falling apart.
Meanwhile, tear the kale leaves from their stems. Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil, blanch the kale leaves until tender – no more than a few minutes – then transfer to a colander with a slotted spoon and leave to cool. Bring the water back to a boil and cook the pasta for a couple of minutes less than the instructions on the packet: you want it to be still a little firm to the bite. Squeeze any remnants of water from the kale, finely chop and put in a bowl.
In another bowl, beat the ricotta and half the parmesan with a fork, season generously, then stir half this mixture through the kale. Drain the pasta, reserving a cup of the cooking liquid, and return to the pan. Stir in the kale mix and enough of the reserved cooking water to make a wet sauce that coats the pasta.
Tip into a big baking dish and scatter the roast squash, tomatoes and sage over the top. Dollop the remaining ricotta mixture here and there, pushing some of it down into the pasta, sprinkle on the rest of the parmesan and drizzle with a little oil. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the parmesan has melted and the top is golden brown. Serve with a green salad.
If you can’t eat corn off the cob you could try cutting the kernels off the cob and putting them in this hearty soup. The recipe can be found in River Cottage Veg Every Day by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
Serves 6
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 45 minutes if using dried beans
Ingredients
2 Tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
a handful of fresh oregano or marjoram, chopped
100g small dried beans, such as pinto, navy or cannellini beans, soaked overnight or 400g tin beans, drained and rinsed
1 litre vegetable stock
1 bay leaf
750g squash, such as butternut or onion, peeled, deseeded and cut into 2cm chunks
200g French beans, trimmed and cut into 2cm pieces
Kernels cut from 2 cobs corn
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and sauté gently for about 10 minutes. Add the paprika and 1 Tbsp of the oregano. Cook for another minute.
If using dried beans, drain them after soaking and add to the pan, with the stock and bay leaf. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes, or until the beans are completely tender (dried beans vary, and sometimes this may take over an hour).
Add the squash, stir well and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the squash is just tender. If using tinned beans, add the drained, rinsed beans, the squash, bay leaf and stock at the same time, and simmer until the squash is just tender, 10-15 minutes.
Then add the French beans and corn kernels and simmer for a further 5 minutes. To finish, season well with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Stir in the remaining oregano, leave to settle for a couple of minutes, then serve.
