Minnie's Magic

I owe Minnie a big thank you, why? Simply because she picked the most delightful dish in the current Violets Pantry challenge.  The Pantry members are cooking our way through Nigella Lawson’s Nigella Express, with a new recipe every fortnight until all have been cooked.

I set the first challenge choosing Curry In A Hurry which is a firm family favourite, and Minnie was next up with her choice of Butternut Squash with Pecans and Blue Cheese.

I must admit I nearly didn’t partake in this challenge as I found the recipe very uninspiring, not something I often find with Nigella’s recipes at all. The inclusion of a squash in my vegetable box swayed it for me though and I decided to go for it. I’m so glad (as is my Dad) that I took the plunge and completed the challenge albeit with a few changes.

I changed the blue cheese to English goats cheese because although I love some stinky blue cheese on crusty bread or even cheese biscuits but not in anything cooked. The goats cheese was a fairly strongly flavoured, slightly salty variety and had a lovely soft texture, melting ever so slightly over the hot vegetables when scattered at the last minute before serving, giving a lovely combination of cool on hot. 

I also didn’t add the pecan nuts as I really wasn’t in the mood for them, I’m sure they’d make a great addition to the salads texture and flavour combinations but I just didn’t want them.

To make the dish into a more substantial vegetarian main meal I added some cubes of sweet potato to the butternut squash while cooking, which just varied the flavour a little and seemed to add a little more substance too. I cooked the squash and potatoes in my lovely new ActiFry which required only one tablespoon of olive oil, they were perfectly cooked – soft, tender and just beginning to caramelise around the edges in 25 minutes and it also made the tidying up easier and quicker too

The vegetables were served on a bed of mixed salad leaves, including rocket, frisee, spinach and watercress, the heat from the vegetables just causing the leaves to wilt and their flavour to come alive and intensify.

Although the warm salad was lovely as a main meal it would also make a great accompaniment to lamb, beef or chicken. I’m already planning (vegetable box depending) on serving this the next time we have some griddled fillet steak.

So thank you very much Minnie for drawing my attention to this, it will become a regular feature here!

The Recipe (Serves 6-8):

• 2kg butternut squash 
• 3 tablespoons olive oil 
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 100g pecans 
• 125g Roquefort, or other blue cheese, crumbled 
• salt and freshly ground black pepper 

1. Preheat the oven to 220C. 
2. Halve the squash, leaving the skin on, and scoop out the seeds. Cut the squash into 2.5cm cubes – you don’t need to be precise, just keep the pieces uniformly small. 
3. Place into a roasting tin and drizzle with the oil. Strip about four sprigs of thyme of their leaves (or use dried thyme) and sprinkle over the butternut squash. 
4. Transfer to the oven and roast for about 30-45 minutes, or until tender. 
5. Once out of the oven, remove the squash to a bowl. Scatter over the pecans and crumble over the cheese, stirring everything together gently. Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper. 
6. To serve, tear the remaining sprigs of thyme into small pieces and sprinkle over the top of the butternut squash mixture.