This wonderful dish combines two of our favourite ingredients to truly elevate the squash. The inspiration for this dish comes from the wonderful Anna Jones- we adapted her version, adding our own little tweaks and embellishments. Harissa is a thick chilli paste usually made with red pepper and herbs such as garlic paste, caraway seeds, coriander seeds, cumin, fennel and olive oil. It can be fun to make our own version and there are plenty of great recipes out there, but there are also lots of quality ready made versions. We just discovered this one in our local co-op- it was awarded 3* by The Great Taste Awards! So we can't wait to try it.
Miso is one of those ingredients that seems to make virtually any recipe taste better. We only really discovered properly when we became more fully plant-based and we've never looked back. It certainly isn't just appropriate for Japanese cuisine- so many wonderful Middle Eastern dishes are also great with miso paste mixed into a dressing for example.
We were lucky enough to pick up a beautiful and unusual Turk's Turban squash from the Cotswold Farm Park and so we used that for this dish but lots of other varieties would work very nicely including Crown Prince and Delicata
This beautiful autumnal dish dish could act as a decadent side dish or form part of a wonderful Mezze spread alongside some hearty winter salads and dips. For a delicious lunch you could just add some quinoa and maybe some crispy chickpeas or butterbeans.
1 medium sized seasonal squash
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.
Cut the potatoes into halves.
Cut the squash in half lengthways (no need to peel), use a spoon to scoop out the seeds, then cut into 2cm slices. Save the seeds and roast them separately! We roasted ours with some olive oil and za'atar.
Mix together the olive oil, miso, harissa and lemon juice in a bowl.
Put the potatoes and squash on to a baking tray with half the harissa mixture. Toss well so everything is coated. Roast for 40 minutes until everything is cooked through. Turn everything half way through so it browns and cooks evenly.
Feel free to then add in a seasonal green of choice- we added spinach- Cavalo Nero would be great, as would broccoli.
Save the seeds, roast them with a generous sprinkling of Za'atar and a little oil at 180 for 25 minutes and then top the squash with lots of them before serving.
