I love trying new recipes. It's usually just a matter of convincing my family that I'm not going to destroy the kitchen in cooking up these recipes which proves difficult. However, since I've been off eating meat recently (I still eat fish), this gives me an excuse to try a tonne of new things- mainly so that I don't starve, or just eat Quorn ever single night.
In our house my mum and I are actually huge fans of veggie meals, and so having supplied the boys with meat I then proceeded to cook up some vegetarian friendly (and if you use vegan cheese, vegan friendly) butternut squash. Now, I cant take complete credit for this recipe; I actually adapted it from a stuffed butternut squash recipe in BBC Good Food's Vegetarian Summer 2015 magazine. But when you don't have all of the ingredients in your fridge you have to get creative, and so this is what I ended up with. I hope that you all enjoy making this, and don't forget to tag me in the pictures you take and upload to IG (there's a button to my account on the right hand side of this page somewhere). You can take this recipe through the seasons too: I feel like squash and root vegetables in general are amazing on cold autumn and winter nights, just swap the ingredients used in this filling for ingredients with a more autumnal/wintery feel...
Ingredients (Serves 2)
- 1 medium butternut squash
- 3 tomatoes, chopped
- 12 olives (a mixture of black and green, I used jarred), each halved
- 6 large chestnut mushrooms, thickly sliced
- 50g feta or "Greek- style" cheese (I used the latter as it doesn't taste as salty)
- 1 small red onion, finely chopped
- 1 handful of kale
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 1/2tsp smoked paprika
- Turmeric, to taste
- 1/2tsp cumin
- 1/2tbsp soy sauce
- 1tsp dried chilli flakes
- Black pepper, to taste
- Chopped fresh mint, and pomegranate seeds, to garnish
- Low kcal cooking spray
Method
- Preheat the oven to 200*c. Cut the squash length ways, and scoop out the seeds. Place the squash on to a baking tray and sprinkle with a little smoked paprika, turmeric, and black pepper. Place into the oven and bake for 45 minutes, until a knife can easily be inserted into the flesh.
- In the mean time cook the filling. Spray a pan with cooking spray and add in the onion and garlic. Gently cook until the onion is nearly translucent, and then throw the tomatoes in too. Cook for a few minutes more, until the tomatoes are softened, before adding in the olives, mushrooms, and spices. Cook for around 3-5 minutes, before adding the kale and cook on a low heat until wilted. Remove from the heat.
- Remove the squash from the oven and scoop out the middle, leaving a layer of the flesh about 2cm thick. Chop the squash that you have scooped out and add to the filling mixture.
- Spoon the filling into the squash halves and top each half with 25g crumbled feta cheese; return to the oven for 10 minutes more.
- Top with chopped mint and pomegranate seeds, and then dig in...
Labels: butternut squash, easy healthy recipe, feta, Food, stuffed squash, vegetarian food, vegetarian recipe
