Five Favourites: Things to Do with Butternut Squash

Goooooood morning the internet! 

As you may have noticed, it's Lent. For many families, this means eating less (or no) meat.
I find that one of the easiest ways to make a vegetarian version of family favourites is to pick a veg as a "focus" for the dish; our favourite "replacement" vegetable at the moment is butternut squash. 

Lent coincides with the hungry gap (the period when very few vegetables are ripe), so our veg box includes quite a lot of imports from further south or crops which keep well - leaving us with a pretty good supply of squash!

I don't really deal in actual recipes, seeing as the internet is full of them - these are more ideas. One thing, though: roasting your squash first really does make a difference in terms of flavour. If the skin is thin enough, peel it first, then cut into cubes. If the skin is a bit tougher, cut into rounds, then chop the edges off and cut into cubes as before. Toss the cubes in a little oil and bake at 180°C for about 20 minutes. And then...

1. Pizza.  Homemade pizza, topped with cubes of roasted squash, rocket (AKA arugula) and mozzarella cheese. 

2. Risotto (orziotto). This is one of our favourites. Orziotto is just like risotto, but made with pearl barley instead of rice. In this case, squash goes well with peas, mint and parmesan cheese - and possibly a few hazelnuts for added crunch.

3. Lasagne. Use your usual recipe, but replace the meat sauce with roasted squash, leeks, (bell) pepper and rosemary. We had this last night and it was pretty good.

4. Moroccan squash stew. Cubed squash, tinned chopped tomatoes, tinned cooked chickpeas, a couple of carrots and an onion. Salt, pepper, cumin. Chili, if you like. Crockpot, low, four hours. Go.
(Good with couscous, or rice, or potatoes, or just bread).

5. Make friends.

Have a squash you don't know what to do with? Googly eyes and a touch of felt tip make all the difference. Just sayin', internets. Just sayin'.

(also, if anyone knows why my font keeps changing in blogger, please let me know!)

Linking up with Ashley for Five Favourites.