food for your soul

At the off chance of being really boring I want to share a favourite recipe of mine. To be honest, there is not much to it, it is just spicy roast butternut squash. I am sure a variation of this can be found in many cookery books.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade. I have no idea what this might be in Fahrenheit.

Choose a squash of your liking. Where I live, the choice is limited and I usually settle for the butternut variety. They seem to be available year round, probably at a great ecological cost. I have to be honest here, I do sometimes buy this out of season because it so versatile to cook and satisfying to eat. Squash can be stored in a cool dry place for a long time, which extends the season somewhat.

Cut the squash in half. This can be quite hard, depending on the choice of kitchen knife you have available. I use the biggest and heaviest knife I have. Then scoop the seeds out with a spoon, or an ice cream scoop. If you like, you can separate the stringy flesh from the seeds and roast them along with the butternut squash. The flesh of the butternut squash is beautifully orange. One of my favourite colours ever.

Cut the two halves into smaller segments. I usually get about 8 to 10 segments. Arrange the segments in a roasting tin.

To make the spice mix, crush a teaspoon of black pepper corns and a teaspoon of coriander seeds. Use a spice grinder if you like. I like it quite coarse because it adds a bit of bite to the roast squash. You could of course use ready ground spices but I love the smell of freshly pounded pepper and coriander. Add to this a teaspoon or two of dried herbs. Oregano is nice but use what you have and what you like. I prefer dried herbs rather than fresh ones. Add a teaspoon of dried crushed chillies, half a teaspoon of fennel seeds and one or two crushed cloves of garlic. Add salt to taste. I add about half a teaspoon. I know lots of people in this country avoid salt altogether but I don't.

Finally add to your mix of spices two to four tablespoons of olive oil. The amount doesn't matter so much as long as it looks about like this:

Pour the spices over the squash and rub it into each segment. Bake the squash for about 30 minutes. I test how soft it is with the tip of a kitchen knife. Squash doesn't taste very nice if it is still hard.

 

 

The roast butternut squash tastes nice on its own, straight from the oven or cooled down. I particularly like it in risotto. Just remove the skin of the squash and cut the segments into smaller pieces. Fold these into the risotto carefully because you don't want it to look like a orangey unappealing mush. Make sure not to waste the spice mix in the roasting dish, spoon it on top of your risotto, or a piece of bread.

 
Have a lovely weekend! Cx