Butternut Squash and Chorizo Salad

I love my Mexican food. Recently, I bought Thomasina Miers’ “Mexican Food Made Simple“, which turns out to be a fantastic collection of Mexican recipes from the former winner of Masterchef and founder of Wahaca.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been trying out a fair few of the recipes form the book, and making my own adjustments for taste and availability of ingredients. This Butternut Squash and Chorizo Salad has turned out to be a firm favourite, and not something I would have tried had it not been for this book.

Here’s my take on Thomasina’s recipe to serve two. Takes approximately 40 minutes.

Ingredients

• One small butternut squash (or half a medium one – even the smallest butternut squash can be too much for two).
• One finely chopped red chilli.
• Half a teaspoon of cumin seed – crushed.
• Half a teaspoon dried oregano.
• Olive oil.
• Half a red onion, roughly sliced.
• A punnet of baby tomatoes. I like a mix of red and yellow pomodorinos.
• A handful of fresh coriander leaves, chopped.
• Chorizo.
• A small bag of baby spinach.

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 190ºC.

2. Cut your butternut squash into 5cm or so pieces, making sure you remove the skin and seed.

   I hate this job. I’m not a fan of how butternut squash smells when raw, but I love the taste after it’s been roasted, so I put up with it. If I’m feeling incredibly lazy I’ll buy pre-cut stuff from the supermarket. This does not make me a bad person.

3. Put your butternut squash, chilli, cumin and oregano into a roasting tin, add enough olive oil to coat lightly and mix.

4. Cook for 15 minutes.

5. Add the onion to the tin, mix, and cook for a further 10 minutes.

6. Add the tomatoes, and cook for a final 10 minutes.

7. Whilst the tomatoes are roasting, grind the coriander leaves into a paste in a pestle along with the salt and pepper. Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil, and mix. This will be your salad dressing.

8. Slice your chorizo and sear it on a griddle. Once seared, place the slices on some kitchen towel to drain.

9. Now that your vegetables have cooked, remove them from the oven and place in a large bowl. Add the coriander oil and gently mix.

10. Finally, line a shallow bowl with spinach leaves, pile on your vegetables and top with chorizo. Tasty, and the chilli gives it a lovely kick.

Tags: baby tomato, butternut squash, chorizo, coriander, cumin seed, mexican, olive oil, oregano, pepper, red chilli, red onion, sea salt, spinach, tomato