Roast butternut squash, chorizo and goat's cheese salad

Ode to a butternut squash: Butternut squash - you are awesome. Tasty and sweet. I think I love you. Despite the fact you're a bitch to peel. The end.

As you can probably tell, butternut squash is another vegetable which I'm a bit crazy about. Well, it *is* awesome. Goes with so many things and roasts really well. 

The cast

Match it up with chorizo and goat's cheese and you've got yourself a winning combination.I mean it. This combo is on the menu in our house every week and we're still not sick of it. 

The beauty of this recipe is that it can be modified in so many ways.Vegetarian? Skip the chorizo. Pumpkin seeds not up your street? Pine nuts to the rescue. Hate broccoli? Replace with green beans. Not a goat lover? Try feta cheese and thank the cows. Hate cheese? Eeerrrm... Blasphemy.

Anyway, let's get started.

To make enough for 2 people you'll need:

1 medium butternut squash (if you can't find it, pumpkin will do just fine)

2 peppers

1 courgette

120 g chorizo sausage (feel free to use more if you luuuurve meat :)

small pack of goat's cheese

1 broccoli

3/4 cup frozen edameme beans (not essential)

handful of pumpkin seeds

2 large handfuls of rocket 

2tbsp olive oil

salt, pepper

chilli powder/paprika/cajun spice

Pre-heat the oven to 190-200 C. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Peel butternut squash, get rid of the seeds and cut into thumb-sized pieces. Cut courgette into sticks (finger sized - heheh, how awesome are my measurements?). Remove seeds from the peppers and cut into strips.

Arrange all veggies on the baking tray and brush with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper and cajun spice/chilli or paprika - depending on how much heat you can take). Pop into the oven to roast for 30-40 minutes.

While the veggies are roasting thinly slice chorizo and boil a small pot of water for broccoli and edameme. 

Fry chorizo on low heat in a shallow frying pan (no need to add oil - the chorizo is quite fatty) until slightly browned and crispy on the edges - this should take about 5 minutes. Set aside. 

Place pumpkin seeds in a separate dry pan and toast for 2-3 minutes. Shake the pan a bit so that the seeds get evenly toasted. Don't even think of leaving the kitchen. Watch the seeds like a hawk as they can burn really quickly. Set them aside. By now the water in the pot should be boiling and you can add broccoli and edameme. Cook for 5-7 minutes and drain.

Sip some tea and check the veggies in the oven. They should be nice and soft.

Now you're ready to assemble the salad. 

 

Toss a handful of rocket on the plate, add your roasted veggies, broccoli and edameme. Scatter some chorizo and pumpkin seeds on top and finish with little blobs of goat's cheese. Drizzle with olive oil and eat!