Winter is here and squashes have been in abundance! Make the most of the last few weeks of having a brilliant variety of squash with this tasty (but somewhat time-consuming to prepare, I must admit) warm salad.
To save a bit of time you could roast the red pepper with the squash and courgette instead of grilling, but I prefer the taste of grilled peppers and this slightly different flavour adds a little extra something. As with most of my recipes the cheese is an optional extra if you’re feeling cheeky!
I’ve put this in the low-carb section as I usually need to inject a couple of units of insulin to cover the squash and the hummus.
Ingredients
- 1 red pepper
- A variety of squashes, eg. ½ a small butternut squash, ½ a tiger squash, 2 small patty pan squashes
- 1 large courgette or 4 baby courgettes
- 1 red onion
- 2 large cloves of garlic
- A handful of cherry toms, washed
- Pine nuts (or Walnuts)
- 1 teaspoon of Mustard powder
- A handful of thyme
- Tiny portion of Feta cheese (optional)
- Rocket and spinach leaves
- ½ an avocado, cut into chunks
- A small handful of kalamata olives, de-seeded and cut in half
- Red pepper hummus (optional)
Salad dressing
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- Juice of 1/2 a lemon
- Pepper
Method
- Preheat the grill and, once hot, place the pepper underneath for 10-15 minutes, or until the skin turns black. Turn it every so often so the whole pepper gets cooked. Once grilled, pop it in a bowl, cover with cling film and leave to one side.
- Preheat the oven to 200 / 180 (fan) / Gas mark 6. De-seed the squash and cut into similarly sized pieces around 1″ long then slice the courgette into thick strips about 2″ long and 2 cm wide, or if using baby squash quarter these length ways. Peel and halve the onion then cut into thickish slices, just under 1cm wide.
- Place the veg in a large roasting pan and pour over a glug of olive oil. Add the thyme, season with black pepper and sprinkle over the mustard powder and give it all a good stir so it’s coated. Then pop the tray in the oven for about 45 mins.
- In a salad bowl pour the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice. Mix together to combine and season with black pepper.
- 15 minutes before the veg are due to come out the oven, add the cherry tomatoes and garlic to the squash and courgette tray.
- In a frying pan, lightly toast the pine nuts on a moderate heat for around 5 minutes.
- Uncover the red pepper and peel off the skin. Remove the top and de-seed it, then slice into 1 cm wide strips.
- Add the salad leaves, avocado and olives to the salad dressing and give them a good toss so they’re coated. Then lay a bed of salad, avo and olives on two plates.
- When all the veg are roasted, heap a generous spoonful on each salad bed, along with the red pepper slices.
- Finally, crumble some feta cheese and a sprinkle of pine nuts or chopped walnuts over the top and season with pepper. Serve with a dollop of red pepper hummus – a delicious accompaniment to the roasted squash.
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