I've been using a lot of recipes from books like Deliciously Ella and Bosh! at the moment. So I thought it was about time I had a little challenge of, "What can I make from what is left in the fridge?". It was so successful I would like to share the recipe with you all.
If you try it, let me know how it went and if you enjoyed it, I'd love to hear from you!
Ingredients: (Serves 2 or save the leftovers for the next day)
1 x Butternut Squash (Medium size)
3/4 cup of Quinoa
4 x Spring Onions (Sliced)
1 x Bell Pepper (Chopped into 1cm Squares)
2 x Mushrooms (Thickly Chopped)
1/2 x Carrot or 1 x Small Carrot (Grated)
Violife Greek Style Cheese (to taste)
Juice of half a Lemon
Seasoning: (all to taste)
Oil
Salt
Pepper
Oregano
- Cut the Butternut Squash in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds. You'll need some proper strength for this, I use a bread knife as I find sawing rather than sheer pressure easier!
- Pop the Butternut Squash on a baking tray inside up, drizzle Oil over the Squash, sprinkle some Salt, Pepper and Oregano over them. All to taste, everyone enjoys different amounts of seasoning!
- Put the Squash into the pre-heated oven 200c and cook for 40 minutes.
- While the Squash is roasting, measure out your Quinoa and thoroughly rinse it. When the water runs clear, put it in a Saucepan, cover the Quinoa with water, sprinkle with Salt and bring to a boil.
- Once the Quinoa is boiling, turn it down to a simmer. Keep an eye on it though, Quinoa can be pretty thirsty and you might need to keep topping it up. It is done when the Quinoa is fluffy, absorbed water and there aren't any uncooked Quinoa "Kernals" in the pan.
- While the Quinoa is cooking, chop your Spring Onions, Bell Pepper, Mushrooms and grate your Carrot. Keep ready for later, also chop your Greek Style Cheese into small half a centimetre cubes, as much as you'd like.
- When the Quinoa is cooked, mix as much of the Carrot as you like with the Quinoa, add the Spring Onions and Cheese to combine altogether. Cut a Lemon in half and squeeze it's juice into the mix.
- Once the 40 minutes is over for the Squash, add the chopped Pepper and Mushrooms to the baking tray and put back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, add the Pepper and Mushrooms to the Quinoa mix then put it on each half of the Squash. Fill the hole where the seeds were and then put the mix along the length of each half too.
- Pop it back in the oven for another 10 minutes, this will melt the Cheese nicely and finish it all nicely.
- Take it out of the oven, carefully move the half of Squash to the plate and eat as it is! Just remember, don't eat the skin :) Enjoy!
-- If you are devouring this meal alone like I did, only fill one half of the Squash in the last part and keep the rest of the Quinoa mix to one side. Then once the empty half of Squash is cooler, cut it up into squares, discarding the skin and mix with the Quinoa. This gives you a tasty, quick lunch for the next day!