Squash and Pumpkin Season

Well, it’s that time of year when the harvest is coming in fast and hard, and the most colourful of all are the pumpkin and squash which give us that lovely autumnal feeling before the hard winter hits in.

We can often think they look lovely, but what can we do with them. Here are a few ideas.

Roast Pumpkin with Couscous and Feta Cheese

This is a delicious salad and really is a meal in itself or alongside some roast chicken thigh, or grilled salmon.

Peel and deseed the pumpkin and roast in the oven with some garlic salt and pepper and a little oil. Hydrate your couscous with some vegetable stock. Mix the cooled pumpkin and couscous together and crumble some feta cheese over the top. Drizzle with some pomegranate syrup if you have it, but its delicious without. If you want to give an additional bit of crunch you could toast some sunflower seeds and sprinkle over the top also.

Pumpkin and Squash make a really great soup. This is one of the firm favourites in the café.

Spicy Squash with Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup

Ingredients

½ butternut or any other squash or pumpkins

1 sweet potato

1 medium onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 chilli

Knob of fresh ginger

Tablespoon of thai curry paste

1 litre of vegetable stock

1 can of coconut milk

Method

Peel, deseed and cube squash

Peel and cube sweet potato

Chop Onion

Grate Garlic and Ginger and finely chop chilli (leave seeds in if you like a bit of heat and take them out if you don’t)

Sweat Onion with some oil in the pan until soft but not coloured, add chilli garlic and ginger and cook for a minute or two, add curry paste and cook for a minute,

Add the squash and sweet potato, season with a little salt and pepper, and cover with a lid, turn the head low and allow all the spices and veg to get to know each other for 2 to 3 minutes, stir every now and then to make sure its not sticking to the bottom. This step really helps develop the flavour as it gives the spices some time to cook and the veg to caramelise a bit which gives them a better flavour.

Add the veg stock and cook until all the veg are soft (about 15 minutes)

Add the can of coconut milk and blend.

If this soup is a little thick at this stage you can just add some water to bring it to the consistency you like.