Baked butternut squash

Unusual, but so tasty!  Baked butternut squash with rice, pine nuts and sage.

I had never used fresh sage before, using only dried in cooking previously, but using fresh works really well with butternut squash – not too overpowering. This can be a tasty side dish or you can make it into a wholesome meal by adding cooked chicken into the rice.

So simple, so delicious and so colourful...

  

 Ingredients:

1 Butternut squash

Olive oil

4 Cloves of Garlic (2 kept whole for baking, 2 sliced thinly for the filling)

150g rice (dry weight), cooked

A few sage leaves, chopped coarsely

4 tbsp Pine nuts

Serves 2

Metod: 

Heat the oven to 200C (400°F)/ 190C Fan (375°F)/ gas mark 6.

Cut the squash lengthwise into halves and remove seeds from the cavity. Criss-cross the flesh with a knife (not too deep), sprinkle a little olive oil and place one clove of garlic in each half. Bake the prepared squash for 20 - 25 minutes until the flesh becomes tender.

 

The garlic is only used to add flavour and is removed after baking. However, it’s a shame to let it go to waste – try it mashed on a piece of fresh bread – very tasty!

After baking, scoop out the flesh from each half, leaving about 1 cm in the shell. Chop the scooped out flesh into small pieces.

Heat a little olive oil a frying pan and cook the sliced thin garlic for about 2 minutes, then add the chopped sage, pine nuts, rice and the chopped squash (add the cooked chicken now if you want to include it) and warm the mixture through for a few minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Fill the baked squash halves with the rice mixture, drizzle with olive oil and place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes until golden and tender.

Bon appétit!