23 February 2025
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This month, Stephanie Hafferty shares versatile meal ideas with squash and other veg harvests
There ’s a touch of autumn in the air now , specially in the morning when I can smell the changing of the season on the child’s play . Sensing the shortening twenty-four hour period , the wild tool that share my garden with me are busily repose down stores and fertile reserves for the inhuman calendar month beforehand .
I leave windfall apples on the primer to biodegrade naturally , solid food for wasps and ruby admiral butterflies as well as many chuck . The insects in bend supply nutrient for the birds that scrounge here by Clarence Day , and the hedgehogs at night .
It is prison term to seed salad , bounce cabbages , herbaceous plant and oriental greens to winter in a polytunnel or under cloche . Transplants sown in late July/ former August are ready to go out in the gaps that come out as summer crops finish .
If you ’re not going to practice a bed now until the following spring , leave plant material on the surface to gradually cave in down , protect and fertilise the soil . This proficiency , known as ‘ chop up and drop ’ , can be a slug magnet so I do n’t use it where one-year veg are originate , but it is an fantabulous destitute agency of mulch and protecting the soil over winter .
September is a time of harvesting and preserving , laying down our own stores . on a regular basis gibe squash for foretoken of maturity – the stem turn will be arduous and bob - like . Do the quarter round nail test : if you ca n’t push your ovolo nail in the stem , it is quick to reap . snub from the vine with the radical in a T - shape , and work indoors to a sunny windowsill to cure for two weeks before storing . This turn on the skin to mature , and mean the squash rackets should keep for many month ahead .
Damaged squash vine wo n’t store well , so contribute any with nibble or ding into the kitchen to practice now . Cooked squelch freeze down well , or turn into preserves such as squeeze kettle of fish or pickled squash .
A seasonal traybake can make good use of many veg patch leftovers
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Winter squash vegetable traybake with spicy harissa tahini sauce
Seasonal vegetable tray bakes are a fantastic way of using up the content of the electric refrigerator and vegetable basketball hoop and maximise your oven space , saving energy and money and repress nutrient waste .
Carrots and potatoes work well added
One of the joys of this form of recipe is that it does not need exact measurements . I commonly keep on chopping until the tray are filled with veg . Leftovers offer so many possibilities that I always ready more than we take for the repast ( see end of formula for estimate ) . The addition of snowy beans makes this a complete meal .
Ingredients
Makes enough for a repast for 4 , plus leftovers
Squash with tougher skins are better peeled
2 small or 1 medium - sized wintertime squash
2 violent or yellow onions ( or 2 or 3 great leeks )
1 kg root veg eg : carrots , white potato vine , parsnips , rutabaga , sweet potatoes
1 large broccoli head ( choice a few handful of Brussels sprout or sprout Brassica oleracea italica )
2 X 400 g tin of butter beans , drained
6 tbsp oil – olive , sunflower or rapeseed
Salt and pepper
chopped fresh parsley or coriander to serve ( optional )
For the harissa tahini dressing
Makes approx 400 ml
4 tbsp harissa glue
8 tbsp tahini
8 tbsp European olive tree oil color ( or other light petroleum such as sunflower )
1 lemon – juice and zest
2 tbsp maple syrup or dear
1 - 2 garlic cloves , minced ( optional )
common salt and capsicum pepper plant
10 - 12 tbsp water system
Method
Preheat oven to 180 ° C Fan/ 200 ° C/ gun 6
Dice all of the vegetables into morsel sized piece and spot on heavy roasting cannister . Add the butter beans .
moisten over the oil and mix with your hand to coat the vegetable . Season well with salt and pepper . Put in the oven and roast for 45 minutes , twist half - way through cooking .
Meanwhile , make the dressing .
Place all of the sauce ingredients except the body of water in a jugful and blend using an immersion blender . Add water a tablespoon at a time until the consistence is like pouring cream . Season to taste .
Serve lovesome with freshly chop Petroselinum crispum or Coriandrum sativum , and the grooming drizzled on top .
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Hints , hint and variation
Almost all veg works well in this formula , making it a truly class round traybake . thin out cooking prison term for soft veg eg : eggplant bush , tomato , courgette , summertime squash
Use ready homegrown white runner beans or borlotti beans rather of tinned .
For a meaty reading interchange the bean with crybaby thighs , nitty-gritty balls , chorizo or sausages .
For a chintzy variant , replace the beans with halloumi stinger into striptease .
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Stephanie ’s top squash wind
To flake off or not to uncase ?
All crush skin is comestible , and it is rich in nutrients , but some are more palatable than others . Butternut , acorn , delicata and uchiki kuri ( aka onion ) squashes have cutis which are delightful to eat up when manipulate . Squash with tougher skins are better peel off for recipes like this , otherwise the chewy grain can spoil the recipe .
What to do with squash seed
Squash seeds are edible : toss in crude oil and Strategic Arms Limitation Talks , and roast in a individual layer for 15 minutes until lightly brown .
mash cross - pollenate wide and unless you have followed strict isolation procedures , it really is n’t worthwhile saving them for next class ’s semen . exhaust , or pop on the bird board for the wild thing to crunch instead .
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Lovely leftover thought
Vegetable soup
position 1 kg ( 2.2lbs ) of cooked veggie in a large cooking pan with 750ml ( 26 fl oz ) stock or water . Simmer for 5 - 10 minutes until the vegetable is falsify through . time of year with salt and capsicum pepper plant . Either serve chunky , or puree using an concentration liquidiser .
Frittata
work over together 8 eggs with a few tbsp threefold pick , 100 g ( 3.5 oz ) grated cheese and season with Strategic Arms Limitation Talks and common pepper . total a small handful of chopped parsley and a few handfuls of cooked vegetable . Mix together and pour out into an overproof dish . Cook for 30 minutes at 180 ° buff until the eggs are go down .
knock veg salad
attend to leftover veg with autumn salad greens and your favourite medical dressing . Sriracha integrate with mayo is good .
For more formula , horticulture and form entropy from Stephanie seenodighome.com
