Roast Butternut Squash Salad
This light, summery side dish is perfect for these stinking hot Aussie February evenings, where eating can be a bit of a chore.
The veggie garden hasn’t been a huge success this year, but we’ve grown enough to enjoy picking a few fresh bits and pieces. We’ve grown some beautiful butternut squash, a respectable amount of tomatoes and our basil hasn’t completely gone to seed.
I created this recipe to use what we have managed to grow in a delicious way.
Serves Three
Ingredients
One regular sized butternut squash or two small butternut squash.
A slosh of oil (about two tablespoons, any more will create a slushy dish).
A sprinkle of salt
A drizzle of honey (about one tablespoon).
Two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
A small onion finely chopped.
A big handful of fresh basil finely chopped.
Two tablespoons of orange juice.
One tablespoon of orange zest
420 g can of red kidney beans (about a cup and a half, it doesn’t really matter).
Four tablespoons of sundried tomatoes strips (with the excess oil pressed out, see tips).
Salt and pepper to taste.
Instructions
Peel and cube the butternut squash. (Don’t forget to save the seeds for the garden!)
Put the cubed squash onto an oven tray. Pour over the oil and drizzle with honey and toss together with the squash until all the cubes are nicely coated. Salt well. (In addition to enhancing the taste, this will help draw the moisture out from the squash.
Pop it into the oven at 230c (446°F) for about 45 minutes or until the squash is soft, but not mush.
Remove from the oven and add two tablespoons of balsamic vinegar to the squash. Toss lightly. Do this while the squash is still hot and it will absorb the vinegar.
Add the onion, basil, sundried tomatoes, beans, orange juice and zest. Mix well. Allow to chill for at least two hours.
Before serving, add cherry tomatoes (halved) and a little more finely chopped basil.
Salt and pepper to taste.
This is delicious served with cold corned beef. It’s the perfect meal for those hot summer evenings when you can’t face anything hot.
Tips
You have to be careful this dish doesn’t become slushy. Take care not to overcook the squash and I strongly recommend squeezing the extra oil out of the sundried tomatoes to avoid this as well.
I do this by measuring out my sundried tomatoes into a sieve or colander and using the back of a spoon to squeeze the extra oil out. I do this over a plate and pour the oil back into the jar. The oil from the sundried tomato jar is far too yummy to throw away.
In fact, you could do this at the beginning of the dish and use the extracted oil to roast the squash.
