Simple Roasted Squash

Tom Walker

Featuring:

Butternut squash

Effort:

Complexity:

Cost:

In season now

Serves: 4-6

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash

oil and salt

Optional extras: chopped fresh rosemary, curry powder, breadcrumbs with dried herbs and chilli flakes...

Watch the video

It’s butternut squash season! But what should you make with one? Why not keep it simple and delicious by simply halving and roasting? Perfect for using in soups, stews, cubed or mashed as a side, or even blitzed and added to baked goods! Check out the video if you’re more of a visual learner.

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180C (fan)/200C/gas 6.

Halve the butternut squash carefully lengthwise (a sharp chef’s knife or a bread knife is perfect for this), and scoop out the seeds with a spoon.

At this point, you can just pop it face down on a baking tray and bake for 45 mins. If you prefer to add more flavour to your squash, try drizzling with a little oil and a pinch of salt. You could even add some fresh rosemary, or a heaped teaspoon of curry powder over the top before placing face down on a baking tray and roasting for 45 mins.

For a change in texture, try mixing breadcrumbs with your favourite dried herbs and a little salt and oil, perhaps even a pinch of chilli flakes, and fill the scooped out middle of the squash with the breadcrumbs. Do a final drizzle with oil and bake face up for 45 mins.

Engaging Kids

Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.

Kids in the kitchen

The eventual aim, if possible, is to get kids in the kitchen. Don’t worry, this doesn’t have to mean they are with you from start-to-end creating mess and rising stress levels! It can be as simple as giving them one small job (stirring, measuring, pouring, grating, chopping…) ideally involving veg. They can come in to do their little bit, and have fun with you for a few minutes. Getting them involved, making it playful and praising them plenty for their involvement, perhaps even serving it as dinner they “made”, makes it much more likely they will eat the food offered, not to mention teaching them important life skills. Find ideas, safety tips, videos and even a free chart in our Kids in the Kitchen section here.

Activities

While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.

Sensory

Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.

Serving

The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.

Tom Walker

Tom is the Head Food Educator, and a founding member of Hackney School of Food, a specialist teaching kitchen and garden devoted to 'seed to spoon' education.
Previously the Head Teaching Chef of the Jamie Oliver Cookery School, with a background in restaurants, recipe development and school kitchens, he has spent the last 10 years in food education, sharing his infectious love of all things food related with children and adults alike.
He believes that it's never too young or too old to learn a new trick in the kitchen.