Recipes

Christmas Squash

Serves 4

60 minutes total – while the squash is baking you can make the filling and sauce – easy. (Oh, and maybe quaff a festive glass of wine while you’re at it…)

One of our friends from Solent Veggies & Vegans cooked this dish for some meat-eating friends and they absolutely loved it. He was so proud!

2 small squashes (eg acorn or small butternut squash)
3 cloves garlic
Olive oil
1 large sprig of fresh rosemary
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Filling:
A little olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
7-10g (about half a packet) dried mushrooms (porcini or mixed)
70g/2½oz long grain rice
20g/scant 1oz wild rice
500ml/18fl oz vegetable stock
½ tsp chopped rosemary
2 tsp dried cranberries
1 tbsp pine nuts
1 heaped tbsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped

Preheat the oven to 200˚C/400˚F/Gas Mark 6.
Cut the squashes in half; remove all seeds with a spoon and brush lightly with olive oil.
Quarter the garlic cloves and place some in the hollows and dot the rest around the edges of each squash half.
Add the rosemary needles and season with a little salt and freshly ground pepper.
Place in a roasting dish and roast for 45 minutes until the flesh is soft.
While the squashes roast, prepare the filling: Sauté the onion until translucent and add the wild rice and vegetable stock.
Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the dried mushrooms, long grain rice, rosemary and dried cranberries.
Bring to the boil once more, then cover and simmer over a very low heat until the stock is absorbed and the rice is soft (about 20 minutes).
Stir in the pine nuts and chopped thyme.
Meanwhile, make the Divide the rice filling between the four squash halves and return to the oven for 5 minutes.
Serve with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce gently warmed and Christmas vegetables of your choice.

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