Roasted butternut squash has such a lovely flavour and it goes really well with roasted peppers. The ingredients for this dish would also be great for a hearty salad or with couscous.
Ingredients for rice with roasted peppers and butternut squash (serves 2):
– 1 smallish butternut squash
– Olive oil
– 2 large coloured peppers (not green as they taste different)
– 150g rice (I used wild rice but wholemeal would work well too)
– Veggie stock
– Lemon thyme
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to gas 7 (220 C).
2. Peel the butternut squash and remove the seeds. Cube and place on one half of a baking tray, leaving some room for the peppers. Drizzle some oil over the top and mix it in with your hands so all the pieces get a good covering.
3. Cut the stalks off the peppers and remove the white, seedy part. Tap out any excess seeds. Place the peppers on the baking tray, the open part facing down. They don’t need any oil.
4. Roast until the squash is tender and the skins of the peppers look charred. I have to be honest here, I totally forgot what time I’d put the squash in the oven, but I’d say it takes around 30 mins and longer if the pieces are bigger. The peppers may need about 40 mins, so feel free to take the squash out beforehand if needed.
5. When the veg only has about 15-20 mins left, bring the stock to the boil and cook the rice until tender.
6. When the veg is ready, remove from the oven. You can run the peppers under some cold water and try to remove the skins by finding a puffy part and sliding your finger underneath, but this isn’t too crucial. Chop the peppers and add to the rice along with the squash, lemon thyme and lemon zest (if you have a zesting implement).
Looking back at my ‘about’ page the other day, I saw that I’d originally promised to always provide a really speedy version of any meals that aren’t virtually instant. For this one, you could just use ready roasted peppers from a jar and small pieces of sweet potato, which would take very little time to cook in some stock. These would be more filling that the squash though, so I’d only use one sweet potato.
Diary of a Vegan in a Hurry 