Squash

Baked Little Gem Squash

Delicious baked in the oven. Just cut in half and place on a baking tray in a hot oven, sprinkle with a little olive oil and roast till the flesh is soft.  You can scoop out the seeds and then serve the pulp as a side dish – sprinkled with a little more olive oil and some salt and pepper.  It also makes a great soup: roast first as above, then add to some sautéd onion and garlic, it goes well with carrots, sweet potatoes.

Roast squash: 

You can cut them into wedges, sprinkle with olive oil and roast them for 40 minutes at  180 C– turn over a few times during the cooking time and check they’re not burning.  When they’re soft – you can take the seeds out and the skins off – sprinkle with a little salt , (and some toasted sunflower seeds is nice) and serve. 

Squash with garlic and ginger

Cut squash into bits – cut off skin and take out seeds.   Cut the flesh into thin chunks.  Put some olive oil into a large, flat frying pan – add some chopped garlic and a large piece of chopped up fresh ginger.  Before the garlic starts to colour add the chopped up squash.  Cook over a medium heat and stir occasionally to prevent sticking.  After ten minutes or so – put a lid on the pan – turn the heat down to low and leave to cook for 40 minutes. The squash should become soft and translucent.  When it’s like this – add a teaspoon or so of soy sauce and cook a little longer.  Serve as a side dish or with brown long grain rice as a main course.

Patty Pan squash: Patty Pan are also known as the custard squash and like most squash family members can be baked, sliced and fried in olive oil or eaten raw in salads. Patty pans do not need to be peeled - trim the ends off and either cook whole or slice into rounds. Wash thoroughly before use.  Like most squash their flavour is improved and concentrated by roasting. To roast, heat a little olive oil in a roasting tin in a preheated oven at 200(C, gas mark 6. Add the whole patty pans and a selection of prepared and sliced vegetables such as yellow pepper, red onion and aubergine. Toss the vegetables to mix, season with salt and pepper and cook for 35-45 minutes or until tender. You could also stuff them: (life may be too short to stuff a mushroom but maybe it’s just long enough to stuff a patty pan..)  Drop the whole squash into boiling water for 4-5 minutes – remove and cut off the top, take out seeds and flesh – keep the flesh and mix with a mixture of sauted garlic, onion and some cheese such as parmesan or gruyere.  Stuff the mixture back in the squash and put the lid back on.  Bake in a  hot oven until tender.

Squash and Coconut soup

Serves 4
1 medium/2 small Acorn squash/es            
100g desiccated coconut
1 litre vegetable stock                                                
100g fresh sweetcorn cut from the cob or frozen sweetcorn 
100g cream cheese or double cream   
1 dried bay leaf

Roast Squash and Vegetables  

1 x 1.3kg onion or kuri squash                          4 red peppers
2 red onions                                                         8 medium-size tomatoes
1 head of garlic                                                    4 medium-size red chillies
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil                                  1 tbsp runny honey
sea salt

Heat the oven to 190C fan oven/200C or 400F electric oven/Gas 6. Arrange the vegetables on a large roasting tray as you prepare them. Halve the squash using a large sharp knife, cut out the seeds and slice off the outer skin. Segment the squash and cut it into pieces several inches long.  Trim the tops of the pepper stalks, halve them lengthwise and cut out the seeds. Peel and quarter the onions. Leave the tomatoes whole. Slice the top off the head of garlic to reveal the cloves and break it up and peel the cloves. Tuck in the chillies, drizzle over the olive oil and the honey, and season with salt. It's important not to overcrowd the vegetables when you roast them; place them on two trays if necessary. Roast the vegetables for 45-55 minutes, checking them at least once, and moving any on the outside that are caramelising too quickly into the centre. Serve them about 10 minutes out of the oven, with any juices from the bottom of the pan spooned over.  (the chillies can be removed before serving).

Butternut squash: Butternut squash with mascarpone & sundried tomatoes. This recipe comes from box scheme member Deborah Handforth, who’s done several Marketchef sessions for us and has recently started her own, very good, food blog – with lots of ideas about how to use the veg in the bags.

1 butternut squash
1 jar sundried tomatoes in oil (I use the merchant gourmet ones)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
250g tub mascarpone
pinch salt

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