Festive butternut roast

I went to the online Festive Vegan Plant Powered show this weekend, ticket courtesy of my beautiful sister. I managed to catch the end part of Gaz Oakly’s Stuffed Squash Roast and it gave me an inspiration to try my own hand and this festive package of yum.

This roast is perfect for any fancy vegan holiday meal, it’s easy and super delicious.

What you’ll need:

1                                              large butternut squash

2 TBS                                     olive oil

1                                              medium white onion (finely diced)

2                                              cloves of garlic (finely diced)

100 g                                     mushrooms (I used exotic, but you can use any kind really) – Finely diced

300 ml                                  vegetable stock

80 ml                                     red wine

100 g                                     uncooked lentils

80 g                                        dried cranberries

1 large sprig                        fresh rosemary (finely chopped)

1 large sprig                        fresh thyme (finely chopped)

1 tsp                                      mixed spice

100 g                                     swiss chard or spinach (finely chopped)

30 g                                        pistachios (roughly chopped)

30 g                                        pecan nuts (roughly chopped)

1 tsp                                      fine salt

How to do it:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Prepare a baking tray by covering it in foil.
2. Very carefully, cut the butternut in half length ways. Rub the two halves with the olive oil and place cut side up on the baking tray.
3. Bake for 50-60 minutes until tender. The time will depend on the size of your butternut so start checking at around 45 mins.
4. When done, let cool down before you handle them.
5. Meanwhile in a medium to large saucepan, heat up a bit of olive oil. Then sauté the onions and garlic until translucent.
6. Add the mushrooms and cook for a further minute or 2.
7. Add the vegetable stock, red wine, lentils, cranberries, rosemary, thyme, and mixed spice. Give it a stir and simmer on a medium heat for about 30 minutes until lentils are tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed.
8. Mix in the spinach, nuts and salt and stir through.
9. Now it’s time to prepare the butternut, using a spoon scoop out some of the flesh. Be careful not to take too much you want to keep a bit of the flesh against the skin so it holds it’s shape.
10. Mix the scooped butternut into the lentil mixture.
11. Now fill one half of the butternut with the filing. You can fill it so it’s a little pile you want it to fit nicely into the top half.
12. You might have a bit of the filling left over, this is great to keep in the fridge for snackies.
13. Place the top on the butternut and using cooking twine, tie 2 or 3 pieces around the roast to hold it together. If you don’t have any string you can just rest the lid on top it should hold, the string only makes it a bit more stable.
14. Place your tied butternut back onto the foiled tray and place back in the oven for 10 – 15 minutes.
15. Serve as a delicious holiday roast to convince your friends that plant based can be amazing.

As always, thank you so much for reading and if you like what you see, please don’t be shy to like and subscribe. X

If you give this a try drop me a message and let me know how it turned out! Or you can tag me in your creations on Instagram @flightoffancyfood or on Facebook @ninabakesstuff.

If you fancy trying out some of my other savoury dishes, how about these bad boys:

• Aloo Palak
• Ancient Greek soup
• Mexican rice bake

Love and health to all of you, and happy December!

xx

N