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Butternut squash and spinach lasagne

Posted on January 7, 2010 | 8 comments

Snowed-in. Good excuse to make Butternut and spinach lasagne.

Christmas has had me confused: am I vegan or carnivore? This light vegetably vegetarian dish is a compromise.

And..it does NOT require a white sauce!

As I had been planning to make the dish for a week, I had the main ingredients:

In my pic, lined up for their photoshoot, from left to right:

1 organic butternut squash, 1 packet of frozen organic spinach, 1 organic milk and 3 sheets of lasagne pasta. You need mozzarella for topping.

I got the recipe from a free promotional recipe booklet from Olive Magazine two years ago (when I had advised Hardeep Singh Kholi on going organic).

Here is the beautiful butternut squash cut in half.

I used the whole squash for the recipe and produced just over the 500g required.

I cut the squash into manageable pieces with a small sharp knife, peeled the skin using a potato peeler and scooped out the seeds.

Love the way the butternut squash is so orange.

You fry 1 onion in a large frying pan then add the 500g cut-up squash. I cut-them up smaller when I realised they had to fry.

The recipe said fry until tender and slightly brown round edges but I put the lid on – answered a few emails – and in 15 minutes it had gone very soft indeed, but not brown.

Then add 100 mls of milk (or plant milk, vegan-me).

The BEST things about this recipe are:

no need for a white sauce
500g of squash and 150g of (frozen) spinach makes it LIGHT and vegetably.

So you cook the 3 lasagne sheets in boiling water for 3 minutes then drain.

Then layer: one sheet of pasta, followed by half of the cooked squash and half the warmed spinach.

Another sheet of lasagne pasta, then rest of squash and spinach.

Finish with the third lasagne sheet and tear a 125g ball of mozzarella over it.

(I used Buffalo Mozzarella from Laverstoke Farm, the organic farm ‘university’ owned and run by ex-racing car driver, Jody Scheckter. 20% off in Better Food organic supermarket just before New Year).

Put the dish under a heated grill until it bubbles and browns.

I photographed it against the snow.

No food-stylist, I! Look at the food splashes…not very stylish.

But definitely delicious.

For more squash recipes, including recipes for carnivores and vegetarians, nutritional information and how to grow squash from seed, see the book I co-authored, Make More of Squash. Aad on the right of this post offers 20% discount…

Interested in reviewing a copy? Email me at elisabeth.winkler AT yahoo.co.uk

8 Comments

Posted in eating well on a budget, food, health, organic, producers, recipe, vegetarian

Tagged buffalo mozzarella, butternut squash, healthy lasagne recipe, Laverstoke Park, Make More of Squash, Olive magazine, snow, squash recipe

Copenhagen 2009 – green book signing

Posted on December 20, 2009 | 8 comments

Book signing last Tuesday. Said a few words, quoting my mate Robin, quoting his mate, Tony Juniper:

“Whatever happens at Copenhagen, it’s people’s cultural change that’s crucial.”

Cultural change: such as the way we eat food.

So blessed in Bristol with independent shops and local organic farmers.

We made food bought from Scoopaway, La Ruca, Saxon’s Farm at Bristol Farmers’ Market and Better Food organic supermarket.

The recipes are written by co-writer Patricia Harbottle who came to sign books.

I copied Pat’s choice of recipes from the book, which Pat had cooked for the Dorset launch.

Spicy pumpkin seeds roasted and crunchy in egg white masala.

Pea, leeks and courgette fritatta.

Hey, I now know the secret of making fritatta, thanks to Patricia’s recipe.

You finish cooking omelette and vegetables by placing under the grill.

(Thank you, Lynne, for loan of fritatta pan that goes on the stove AND under a grill – otherwise leave your frying pan’s plastic handle sticking out away from the heat.).

And we also baked Courgette cake.

For 100 people. I repeat: a hundred.

Patricia was a top London caterer before she retired to Dorset. She helped me “scale up”.

I have decided not to be a caterer when I grow up as I had low-level fear of food poisoning and had to taste everything and not die first.

I am indebted to Ros and Charlotte for patient and relentless weighing, mixing, chopping, stirring and spreading. Not to mention style counsel.

And Chris Johnstone, author of Find Your Power, for inspired dulcimer-playing.

The best bit of the book signing was when people in the audience

spontaneously suggested ways to help Make More of Squash, and Make More of Beans & Peas go far and wide.

As well as giving nutritional info, the Make More of Vegetables series show you how to grow from seed and cook from scratch

– profound ways to create a healthy, vibrant, low-carbon, resource-saving green world

…because it’s no good waiting for our business-as-usual politicians to do so.

Stop press: I checked with Tony Juniper if it was OK to quote him. He replied:

“Thanks Elisabeth. Of course I am delighted for you to quote these words. The only thing I might add is to flag up the 10:10 campaign, which seems like a logical reaction to what just happened in Denmark. I was there – it was truly shocking.”