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Its an ugly thing to admit but I have to own up to a bad case of discrimination… against the humble butternut squash!

Many a time I have ignored it during a trip down the supermarket isles, always choosing something less bulbus and more attractive. But behind the yucky biege skin and ugly bell shape lies a yummy sweet sunshine treat I am very glad I found.

It all started with Milly (as all things tend to do these days). We started down the baby weaning road recently and although I had never tasted a butternut squash before then anyone with a baby will tell you your life gets pretty full of the stuff once you start weaning because it’s in practically everything. It seems to be the main ingredient in most organic baby food products and Annabel Karmel love’s the stuff!  So fearing I was denying Milly some vital “squash nutrition” I put aside my misgivings and bought myself a particually large, ungainly looking one at sainsbo’s.

The first thing you will notice on aprouching a butternut squash is its almost imposible to cut, after spending what seemed like forever hacking away at it I rang my much more accumplished baby-Mummy friend, she informed me she only ever bought them with tall necks and just threw the bottom seady bit away.

My big baby was less of a skinny thin necked job, more of a no neck, fat borttomed type so I had to just plough on. My advise to you, in hindsight is this, just slice the beast in half and cut into cubes. then cut away the skin, don’t, as I did, attempt to peel it with a potato peeler. It’s an impossible task that will posibly leave you with no skin left on your fingers!

Anyway since those heady, new love butternut squash days I have discovered many ways to roast, curry , mush and enjoy the vurtues of this great veg. I have added a few of  the all time great’s here for you to try, go on, don’t wait till you have a baby to wean before you try it!

Spicy Thai butternut squash soup

This soup is so yummy and really low in the old calorie deparment, happy days as the old oliver says!

1 tablespoon Extra virgin olive oil

2 onions, chopped roughly

2 chillies, deseeded and chopped

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 and 1/2 cm piece of ginger, chopped

2 lemon grass stalks or juice of 1/2 lemon

1 large butternut squash (about 1kg) peeled and chopped into cubes

400ml can of reduced fat coconut milk

1 ( low salt , if your adding to baby food later, see below) veg stock cube

1 tablespoon nam pla (thai fish sauce)

juice of 1 lime

Add olive oil to a large heavy based pan. Add onion, chilli, garlic, ginger and lemongrass and fry gently to soften.

Add the squash, coconut milk, stock cube, fish sauce and enough boiling water to cover the squash.

Bring to boil, covered, and simer for about 20 mins until squash is soft.

Blend the soup until smooth with hand blender or food processer. If the soup is to thick add a little water, to thn, just put back on the heat and reduce.

Right at the end add lime (and lemon juice if using instead of lemongrass) stir well and serve.

Baby butternut squash thai curry

Milly LOVES this dish, its easy to do once you’ve made the soup and it freezes really well.

3 Tablespoon’s of Thai squash soup (see above)

1/2 a Medium sized butternut squash (roughly is fine)

1 medium sized sweet potato

Chop squash and sweet spud and boil until soft, mash and add the soup. Then blend. So good, and no runny nappies, honest!

(based on a recipe found in the “cook yourself thin, quick & easy” book)

Creamy Chicken Curry

Lovely rich curry with just the right amount of spice that even jack the curry hater likes (as long as I don’t call it curry!)

1 tablespoon of olive oil

2 onions, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 teapoon of low salt sea salt

1 medium butternut sqush

1 red pepper

3 chicken breasts

1 heaped teaspoon curry powder (or to taste)

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground ginger

300ml chicken stock ( low salt if using for baby food, see below)

50g half fat creme fraiche ( you can use double cream or coconut milk if you have that in instead)

A handful of chopped coriander (nice if youve got it, but not vital if you don’t)

Add olive oil to a pan heat and add diced chicken breast, cook for a couple of mins then add onion, curry powder, ginger and turmeric.

Once the flavours start to mingle a bit add butternut squash, garlic, sea salt and red pepper, cook for a few mins and then add stock. Simmer gently for about 40 mins or until chicken is cooked and squash is tender. Stir in the creme fraiche.

Sprinkle on corrinander and serve with rice and popadoms.

Ps, if making for a toodler rather than baby just add only half curry powder and spice and add extra at the end for the grown-up portions.

Baby Creamy Chicken Curry with Sweet Potato

3 tablespoons of chicken curry

2 medium sized sweet potato’s

boil and mash the spuds add to chicken curry (as above) and blitz with blender, Milly is a big fan of this and again I can honestly say no stinky nappies!

As well as soup and curry, squash is also great added to mash to top a shepherds pie or just cut up and roasted, I haven’t got shares in them honest!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 10:35 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.