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.

It takes about 15 minutes to cook and tastes fantastic. Serves 2.

Ingredients

• 4 – 5 rashers of bacon (we use Sainsbury’s Be Good to Yourself Bacon Medallions for this)
• 1 courgette
• Garlic puree
• 150g “light” creme fraiche (we used TESCO’s Healthy Living Creme Fraiche today)
• 4-5 balls of Tagliatelle
• Olive oil

Instructions

1. Slice the courgette in half lengthways, and then slice each half finely. Add it to a large frying pan with a little bit of olive oil and a good squeeze of garlic puree. Mix, and fry on a medium heat for a few minutes until soft.

2. Whilst the courgette is softening, remove the fat from your bacon and slice’n'dice into small pieces. Once the courgette is soft add the bacon to the pan. I tend to turn the heat up a bit now to brown the courgette a bit.

   If you want, you can add even more garlic puree at this point. Don’t forget to give everything a good mix.

3. Now that your bacon and courgette is frying, put your tagliatelle into a saucepan and start cooking it. We tend to put four to five balls in. This will be cooked in about 7 minutes.

4. Once the bacon is cooked, it’s time to add your creme fraiche. Just dollop it into the frying pan and mix. It’ll start to turn a creamy yellow colour as it pulls in the lovely juices from your bacon and courgette.

5. Give it a couple of minutes, then drain your tagliatelle and add it too to the frying pan. Mix everything together and serve immediately. Grate some parmesan on top if you’re feeling that way inclined.

Nommy.