Without tahini there would be no hummus (shock horror!). But tahini has lots of other uses, it is often mixed with honey and spread on toast for a delicious breakfast! But here we are mixing it with lemon juice and a glug of olive oil to make a deliciously creamy dressing. Combined with deliciously sweet butternut squash and a whole host of mouth-watering ingredients, this really is a winning recipe.
The quantities provided above are averages only.
Boxes and ingredients are packed in facilities that handles Peanut, Nuts, Sesame, Fish, Crustaceans, Milk, Egg, Mustard, Celery, Soya, Gluten and Sulphites. Due to the war in Ukraine, it has been necessary to substitute sunflower oil with rapeseed oil in some products without a label change. The FSA have advised that allergic reactions to rapeseed oil are rare.
1
Butternut Squash
½
Chilli Flakes
4
Thyme
½
Cucumber
(May contain Celery)
3
Tahini
(Contains Sesame)
½
Lemon
1
Sunflower Seeds
0.3
Feta Cheese
(Contains Milk)
0.3
Dried Cranberries
1
Baby Watercress
Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees. Slice the butternut squash in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds. Slice it widthways to about 1cm thick (we want to be able to cook this nice and quickly). Now chop it into cubes.
Place on a baking tray, drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil, the chilli flakes to taste and the leaves of four sprigs of thyme(discarding the stalks). Tip: We’ve sent a bit more chilli flakes than you need in case you want to spice it up!Season with ¼ tsp of salt and a good grind of black pepper. Place in the oven and cook for about 20 mins, or until the squash is cooked through (you can easily slip a knife through) and crisp on the outside.
In the meantime, get your delicious dressing and salad ready. Chop your cucumber in half lengthways and then in half again. Now chop into ½cm cubes. Mix your tahini with the juice of ½ the lemon and 3 tbsp of olive oil. Season with ¼ tsp of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Feel free to adjust to your own taste. It should have a wonderful deep nutty flavour.
Pop your sunflower seeds into a frying pan (without any oil) and put on low heat for about 5 mins, moving the pan every now and then to turn them. You want to toast these to make them extra tasty. Tip: Watch them like a hawk - the last thing you want is for them to burn!
In a bowl, crumble your feta cheese over the dried cranberries, add the watercress, chopped cucumber, toasted sunflower seeds and cover with ¾ of the tahini dressing. Give this a good toss.
Plate up by placing the warm butternut squash over the watercress and cranberry salad. Drizzle the remaining dressing on top.