Slow Cooker Baked Stuffed Butternut Squash with Walnut and Goat's Cheese

There's an easy way to cook a roast dinner for meat-eaters and vegetarians at the same time without needing a double oven, which not many people have in their kitchens. But there's one thing that many people do have: a slow cooker.

At Easter I really wanted to eat roast lamb, and had the idea of doing a roasted butternut squash for my mother-in-law who is vegetarian. I was worried that the smell of the lamb roasting would mean I couldn't cook the squash at the same time; I thought about roasting the squash while the lamb was resting but wasn't sure I had enough time. Instead, I decided to do the butternut squash in the slow cooker which meant I could put it on at the same time and not have to worry about it.

The recipe I used was a mish-mash of ideas I found online. I've made a stuffed roast butternut squash before; this time I decided to scoop out the butternut squash itself and use that as the filling.

To serve one, you need:
half a butternut squash
1 garlic clove, crushed
25g butter
1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
30g walnut halves, chopped
30g goat's cheese, crumbled
1 tsp dried mixed herbs

Peel the butternut squash and cut it in half lengthways and remove the seeds. Place the butternut squash cut-side up. Cook on high for about two hours until the squash has softened. Meanwhile mix together the other ingredients.

Scoop out the centre of the butternut squash, leaving around 1cm around the edge so it retains its structure. Mash the butternut squash that you have removed in a bowl with the other ingredients.

Spoon the mixture back into the butternut squash; you can keep this warm in the slow cooker on low if you need to.

I'm sharing this with Meat Free Mondays, hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes.

Goat's Cheese Monte Cristos

When I was at university, my friend Dan made the best late-night post-pub cheese toasties - I've had my own Breville sandwich toaster for several years (the same brand that my parents had when I was a kid, a long time ago) and there is definitely something comforting, if a little greasy, about a toasted cheese sandwich.

I usually add a slice of ham and maybe a smear of mustard to mine, but that's as fancy as it goes. I was looking through a recipe book I have reviewed before called Breakfast for Dinner looking for weekend lunch recipes and came across Monte Cristos - which are effectively cheese toasties but posher.

Apparently this particular recipe originated in the US - it uses turkey and goat's cheese, with hot red pepper jelly for sweetness and spice, though as I didn't have any and didn't want to make it from scratch, I used cranberry jelly instead. You don't need a dedicated sandwich toaster - you make this in a skillet or frying pan, brushing the bread with egg to make an almost eggy-bread texture.

To serve 4, you need:
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
8 slices bread
100g spreadable goat's cheese
1/4 cup hot red pepper jelly - I used cranberry jelly
8 slices roast turkey
2 tbsp. butter

Spread 2 tbsp. goat's cheese onto a slice of bread, then 1 tbsp. jelly. Top with a slice of turkey and another piece of bread to make a sandwich.

Whisk the eggs, milk and salt in a jug and brush over the top of the sandwich.

Melt the butter in the frying pan and place the sandwich in the pan, egg side down. Brush the other side of the sandwich with egg mixture. Cook for 3-4 minutes then turn and cook on the other side, then keep warm wrapped in foil while you repeat with the rest of the sandwiches.

5 Easy Lunchbox Salads you can take to work for lunch

I've been eating a lot of salads lately, and taking one in to work every day for my lunch. It's cheaper than going out and buying one every day and this way I can put exactly what I want into it. Sometimes I get into a bit of a rut eating the same salads every day and end up looking around the internet for inspiration so I thought I'd share my current top five.

Please excuse the simple presentation - this is literally how I take the salads into work for lunch!
First up is really easy - any types of lettuce that you like, topped with feta cheese and chunks of fresh watermelon. A light vinaigrette dressing goes well with this. I usually eat this salad with a packet of ready cooked chicken pieces for protein and to make it more filling.

This salad is my latest addiction: pear, blue cheese and walnut. Again you can use any type of lettuce as a base, and if you like things like cucumber add it in (I don't). I used gorgonzola - I was going to use Roquefort but couldn't get any, but this worked really well. Top with peeled and sliced pear and a handful of walnuts. This goes well with a blue cheese dressing.

 

A different type of cheese for this salad: goat's cheese with bacon lardons (you need to cook the lardons first then let them go cold before adding to the salad). Use on a bed of your favourite lettuce. This goes well with a wine vinegar and Dijon mustard dressing.

 

 

 

This one takes a little longer to make but is good if you want something more substantial for lunch or to take on a picnic. Cook some pasta and drain; while it's still warm, toss through some green pesto from a jar, add some crayfish or prawns (I used crayfish here) and some pine nuts. You can serve this hot or cold.

Finally a bulgur wheat-based salad. This one does take a bit of preparation but you can make a larger quantity in one go. Put the bulgur wheat in a bowl and cover with water; leave for 15 minutes and then drain. Bring a pan of water to the boil - you need roughly three cups water to one cup bulgur wheat. Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and leave to stand for 5 minutes and drain off any excess water.

I used cubes of roasted butternut squash in this salad; sweet potato works really well. If you don't have time to cook, you can buy tubs of roasted sweet potato, butternut squash and carrot to add to salads from Tesco. I've also added feta cheese and some fresh parsley.

 

 

I've certainly got no excuse to have the same thing every day for lunch now!

Slow Cooker Butternut Squash and Goat's Cheese Enchiladas

I've been meaning to post this recipe for ages - it's not really a hot weather dish, but let's face it we haven't had a lot of hot weather recently! It's something you can do in the slow cooker on a weekend or when you are out at work (that being the beauty of slow cookers). I did it on a day when I was working from home so I could put everything in the slow cooker at lunchtime and forget about it until dinner time.

I really like goat's cheese (which is lucky as I once won a year's supply) and love enchiladas but had only made chicken ones before, so thought this recipe for butternut squash and goat's cheese enchiladas looked amazing - and it isn't something I'd have thought to do in the slow cooker but it works brilliantly.

The recipe is from a book called The Slow Cooker. To serve 4, you need:

1 large butternut squash, peeled and diced

4 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp salt

3 tsp ground cumin

1 large onion, diced

1 tbsp. dried oregano

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp. chilli powder

450g canned pureed tomatoes or passata

1 tbsp. clear honey

450ml vegetable stock

12 corn tortillas (I used flour tortillas)

225g goat's cheese

Preheat the oven to 200C. Toss the diced butternut squash with 2 tbsp. of the oil, half the salt and 1 tsp cumin. Roast in a baking dish for 30-40 minutes until softened. I sometimes do extra and add the rest to a salad.

Heat the rest of the oil in a frying pan and and the onion and garlic. Fry for a couple of minutes until soft, then add the rest of the cumin, the salt, chilli powder and oregano and cook for a minute. Stir in the tomatoes, honey and stock, bring to the boil and cook for 5 mins. Blend until smooth in a food processor or blender.

Spoon a little sauce into the base of your slow cooker so the tortillas don't stick. Cover the bottom of the slow cooker with a layer of tortillas (one might be enough depending on the size) and top with a layer of butternut squash, some sliced goat's cheese, a layer of sauce, and another tortilla.

Layer again with squash, cheese and sauce and finish with some sauce and some cheese. Cover and cook on the slow cooker's lowest setting for about 2 hours, and enjoy!



I'm sending this to Meat Free Mondays, hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes.

Butternut Squash, Fennel and Goat's Cheese Quiche

I made this quiche for our new year's day buffet party and it uses winter vegetables, but they are ones you can also find at this time of year - at least, I certainly did the other day. As a quiche is a light dish that can be eaten cold, while it is great for buffets that you need to prepare ahead, it is also really good for picnics and al fresco lunches.

 

I based my quiche this Linda Barker recipe on Good to Know; I used my giant pink pie dish which I love but don't have reason to use very often. You can make your own pastry but I used ready-made as the recipe suggested, as I had a lot of food to prepare for the buffet!

 

Roll it out and line the pie dish and then fill with baking beans - this weighs the pastry down while you bake it blind.

  

I had a lovely selection of vegetables to use for this including some fennel, butternut squash (one of my favourite vegetables), red onion and spring onion.

You do have to pre-cook the vegetables so chop them up, lay out in a roasting tray and drizzle with a little bit of oil. Bake at 180C for about 20 minutes and allow to cool a little, then sprinkle over the baked pastry crust. I then sliced up some goat's cheese and laid it on the top.

Beat 3 eggs with 300ml milk and season and carefully pour into the quiche making sure it doesn't spill over the edges. Bake in the oven at 180C for 25-30 minutes.

The top is a lovely golden brown when cooked; I don't have a picture of the whole quiche but you can see a lot of the ingredients inside in this slice. I thought the quiche was lovely - the butternut squash and fennel went really well together and the goat's cheese gave a really nice depth of flavour.

I'm sending this to Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker, as the letter she has chosen this month is Q.

 

 

The theme for this month's Pastry Challenge, hosted by Jen's Food, is picnics, and this quiche is perfect for a picnic.

 

Butternut squash is one of my favourite vegetables - it's so versatile, as it can be roasted, mashed, used in soups, and goes well with salads as well as hot meals. I also like the fact that it's a really robust vegetable and quite difficult to overcook, and the colour always adds something nice to a plate. So I am sharing this with Vegetable Palette, hosted by Shaheen at Allotment 2 Kitchen, as her theme this month is 'your favourite vegetable'.

 

 

 

 

This also fits in with the Simply Eggcellent challenge hosted by Dom at Belleau Kitchen, where eggs take centre stage, as his theme this month is savoury dishes.

 

 

 

Lady and The Tramp-Inspired Oven-Baked Meatballs with Goat's Cheese

This month's Food 'n' Flix is a lovely Disney film: Lady and the Tramp. It was chosen by Elizabeth at The Lawyer's Cookbook and is perfect for Valentine's day. I must have been quite young when I first saw this film and thought it was lovely, and was particularly taken by Lady (less a fan of the scruffy Tramp!) but I remember cringing when they kissed, in a 'boys are icky' sort of way!

But the scene where Lady and her beau eat the plate of spaghetti and meatballs, and find they are sucking up the same strand of pasta when their mouths meet in a kiss, is iconic. It's been parodied so many times but is actually very sweet. So I couldn't really make anything else for Food 'n' Flix!

I have made spaghetti and meatballs before so wanted to do something a bit different this time. I found a recipe in Slimming World magazine for oven-baked meatballs with cheese melted over the top, which was something I hadn't tried. I adapted the recipe, leaving out the courgette and aubergine as I don't like them.

To serve two, you need:
1 onion, finely chopped
250g lean beef mince
1 tsp dried oregano
1 garlic clove, crushed
salt, pepper
200g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tsp sweetener
200g passata
75ml vegetable stock
100g goat's cheese
pasta to serve

Preheat oven to 180C. In a large bowl mix half the onion, the mince, oregano, garlic and seasoning and roll into balls. In another bowl mix the tinned tomatoes, sweetener, passata and vegetable stock. Place the meatballs in an oven proof dish, pour over the tomato mixture and top with goat's cheese. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes depending on how big you've made your meatballs.

While the meatballs are cooking, boil the pasta according to pack instructions. Serve the meatballs and the sauce over the pasta. I used fusilli but for a true Lady and the Tramp experience you should of course use spaghetti!

As mentioned above I'm sending this to Food 'n' Flix.

Goat's Cheese Filo Pastry Parcels

These goats cheese parcels are delicious and easy to make. We had them as our starter on Christmas day but they would also be a nice idea if you were cooking a romantic Valentine's day meal perhaps. The recipe came from the AllRecipes website and you can find the full recipe by clicking on the link.

Preparing the red onion filling:

Lay out the red onion filling and a slice of goat's cheese on some oiled filo pastry

Gather up like a parcel and secure with a piece of spring onion

Ready to go in the oven

Lovely golden brown, our starter for Christmas dinner

When you cut into the parcels, the goat's cheese is beautifully soft and slowly oozes out. The red onion is a sweet but tangy contrast that works perfectly - I really enjoyed these and am sure you will too!

Easy Fish Pie with Goat's Cheese

At the end of 2013 I won a year's supply of goat's cheese which gave me 24 vouchers to use during 2014; I gave some of them to my family but have eaten my way through a fair amount over the past year! It's made me try more recipes with goat's cheese, many of which you can see on this blog. Recently I fancied a fish pie and decided to incorporate goat's cheese in that.

I bought a pack of fish pie mix from Waitrose for convenience; this was enough to serve 2-3 people I would say. I simply topped the pie with mashed potato though there are plenty of other ways you can make this - I've made a fish pie with grated, slightly parboiled potato on top before which goes really nice and crispy. But for this easy fish pie I just did mashed potato.

The sauce was what really made this pie. I made a roux by melting some butter in a pan and stirring in a couple of spoonfuls of flour until blended. Then gradually add milk until you have enough for a sauce; simmer until it starts to thicken. Then add two chopped spring onions and about 150g of goats cheese and stir until the cheese has melted.

Place your fish in the bottom of an oven proof dish, pour over the sauce and top with mashed potato, then bake in the oven until the top of the potato is golden brown. Simple and delicious!