Roasted Squash, Quinoa and Goats Cheese (serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 butternut squash

bunch radishes

150g quinoa

200g semi hard crumbly goats cheese

1 little gem lettuce (you can also use any salad leaves)

100g hazelnuts

70g cranberries

large handful herbs - basil, oregano or dill works well, you can also use a mix!

avocado or olive oil for roasting

salt + pepper for seasoning

Tahini dressing

4 tbsp tahini

juice 0.5 or 1 lemon (add gradually)

1 large garlic clove finely grated

pinch salt

Preheat the oven to 180C. Peel the squash (you may want to wear gloves), and cut into rough 2cm cubes, taking out the seeds and removing the top and bottom stalks. Top and tail the radishes aswell, then mix both vegetables together in oil, season, and place in the oven for around 35- 40 minutes. You want the squash to be soft and golden, but not so baked that it starts to shrivel.

Now can prepare the rest of the salad.

Place the hazelnuts on a baking tray and also bake for around 12 - 15minutes until roasted (keep an eye on them as they can roast quickly). Leave to cool, then crush with the bottom of a saucepan (I also use a pestle and mortar), or you can also whizz up in a blender for about 5 seconds (they will whizz up fast!).

Place the quinoa in a pan with a pinch of salt and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, then simmer until cooked. Start checking it after about 7 minutes - you want it to be cooked, but still have a bite to it. Once cooked, place through a fine sieve and run under cold water to cool quickly and stop the cooking process.

Place the cranberries in a bowl of cold water and soak for 10 minutes then rinse and leave aside.

To build the salad you can roughly chop the lettuce and herbs, adding these to a bowl. Once cooked and cooled (warm is fine), add the squash and radishes, quinoa, hazelnuts and cranberries, mixing everything together. Crumble the goats cheese on top. You can taste the salad for seasoning and you may want to add a little more salt + pepper.

I also like to make a tahini dressing for this, you can mix all ingredients into a bowl then slowly add water and whisk until you get a good sauce consistency. The tahini will go thick before it goes runny - it’s needs the water to go runny. Add the lemon gradually starting with half, this may be enough, if it feels like it needs more acidity then you can add a little more. Same with the salt, start with a pinch then taste.