Roast Stuffed Butternut

In the winter when the weather's cold and miserable I find I always seem to cook the same old, same old, but I'm trying to break out of that rut.

It was blowing a gale out there last night; perfect conditions for having a rummage in the fridge and seeing what I could find to cook up something warming and different.

I love butternut squash, but I usually only use them for soup or chopped into chunks and cooked alongside roast potatoes. I've never used one as the basis of a main meal before, but I certainly will in future!

This recipe is infinitely adaptable; for the stuffing you can use whatever veg you have to hand and, although I used Feta, I suspect it would work equally well with Brie, Camembert or Mozzarella and if you don't have pine nuts, throw in a few chopped cashews or even olives instead.

See, I said it was adaptable.


1 butternut squash
2 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, chopped
6 button mushrooms, halved
1 small courgette
½ small red pepper
2 large shallots, peeled and cut into quarters
2 tomatoes quartered
2 tbsp pine nuts
100g feta, chopped into small chunks
1 tbsp grated parmesan-style cheese

Cut the squash in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds and stringy bits. Drizzle the squash with half the olive oil and put the chopped garlic in the cavities. Roast for 40 minutes at 200C until tender.

Meanwhile, chop the courgette and pepper into smallish chunks, mix with the shallot wedges, mushrooms and remaining olive oil, then roast for 20 minutes. Put the cooked veg in a large bowl, add the tomato quarters, pine nuts and feta chunks; mix well then pile onto the cooked squash halves. Sprinkle with the 'parmesan' and put back in the oven for a further 15 mins.

If you're absolutely ravenous you could serve some garlic bread with this, but to be honest it was very filling on its own.

Serves 2