Hasselback butternut squash with cherry tomato tumble
Here’s a show-stopping main that’s going to satisfy vegan eaters at the table, particularly when paired with the bean salad. You’ve probably already got a PG (parsley & garlic) paste in the fridge or freezer, or if you haven’t, this’ll give you a good excuse. It’ll use half a batch’s worth, so if you can store the rest for ‘ron. Normally, I’d keep the skin on butternut squash, but this is a recipe where you want the squash to be silky and slippery like a slow-roasted leg of something, so it’s worth the effort of peeling. The pumpkin can be made a day ahead, and then reheated. The PG paste will keep too, but combine with the cherry tomatoes just before serving so they don’t collapse.
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Ingredients
- 1 medium butternut squash approx 1.5kg
- 2 whole brown onions sliced into rounds
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 tsp salt flakes
- ¼ tsp cracked pepper
Cherry tomato tumble topping
- 250 g multi coloured cherry toms halved
- PG dressing
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 190℃ (170℃ fan). Line a large oven tray with baking paper.
- Peel the squash, cut in half and scoop out the seeds. Lay the halves cut-side down onto your chopping board and place 2 chopsticks either side. The chopsticks will prevent you from cutting all the way through the pumpkinm which then creates the hasselback.
- Slice the pumpkin from top to bottom with ½ cm between slices. Repeat on the other piece.
- On a lined oven tray, first lay down the onion rounds, then the pumpkin over the top. This means the onions will slowly cook and caramelise under the squash. In a small bowl, mix the oil, salt and pepper together, then use a pastry brush to brush the oil over the squash, trying to dab into the slices without breaking off any pieces. Cover with baking paper and then foil and pop in the oven for 50 minutes.
- Once finished, remove from the oven and take off the paper baking and foil. Baste the squash with the pan juices and a little more olive oil and then return to the oven uncovered for a further 30 minutes, or until soft and golden brown.
- While the squash is cooking, make your PG paste, reserving ½ cup small nice parsley leaves for garnish.
- In a small mixing bowl, add your tomatoes and half the PG dressing, reserving the rest for dressing the squash.
- Once the squash is done, remove from the oven. These can be roasted the day before and gently reheated in the oven while anything else is in there. Remove the squash from the fridge a few hours before heating up, to help make it a lot quicker to reheat.
- Keeping the squash in the same gnarly tray, tumble over the dressed tomatoes and reserved parsley leaves and serve warm or at room temp.
