Roast butternut squash with cranberry relish and feta
A delicious vegetarian starter or side for Christmas. All the elements – the date and cranberry relish, and the roasted squash – can be made ahead of time.
Ingredients
- 1 butternut squash, peeled and sliced
- 10 shallots, peeled and halved
- 5 rosemary sprigs
- rapeseed oil
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the date and cranberry relish
- 1 red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 60²µ/2¼´Ç³ú dates, roughly chopped
- 100g/3½oz fresh cranberries
- 80²µ/2¾´Ç³ú soft brown sugar
- 1 lemon, juice and zest
To serve
Method
For the butternut squash, preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4.
Place the butternut squash slices, shallots and rosemary on a lined baking tray. Drizzle with oil, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and roast for about 30–35 minutes, or until golden-brown and cooked through.
In the meantime, to make the relish, put the red onion in a saucepan with a little oil and fry for 3–4 minutes before adding the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, dates, cranberries, 2 tablespoons of water, the sugar and lemon zest and juice (to taste). Simmer for about 6–8 minutes.
When the butternut and shallots are cooked, arrange them on a serving platter and spoon over some of the relish. Crumble the feta cheese on top and garnish with chopped parsley.
