Serves
4 People
Cooking Time
60 minutes
Season
Dietary
Ingredients
1 Whole Crown Prince squash
6 Shallots, trimmed & cut into quarters
1 Bulb of garlic
1 Tbsp of Field Blends Christmas Spice
3 Leeks, washed and sliced lengthways and then chopped into chunks
2-3 Tbsps of Honest Toil olive oil
300g Hodemedod’s Pearled Barley
2 Bay leaves
1/2 Tsp smoked paprika
200g Blue cheese, crumbled
150g Cheddar cheese, roughly grated
1 Red chilli, finely chopped
200g Toasted walnuts
Method
1- With a sharp knife, slice off the bottom of the squash, not taking too much off, so they stand up in the oven. Cut the top off carefully - you will put this back on so it should make a neat lid. Scoop out the seeds so it’s hollow-ish and set aside.
2- Place on a parchment lined tray alongside the sliced leeks, shallots and garlic bulb. Drizzle everything with Honest Toil, scatter over Field Blend’s Christmas Spice mix and season well - ensuring all that flavour is over every bit of veg, inside and out of the squash. Replace the squash lid and bake in the oven at 180c for 45-60 minutes, depending on the size of your squash. You want it to be soft and golden but you don’t want it to collapse.
3- Place the barley in a pan, cover with cold water, throw in the bay leaves, a big pinch of salt and bring to the boil. Simmer for 25 minutes. Drain into a mixing bowl.
4- Meanwhile, blanche the squash seeds in boiling water for ten minutes. Thoroughly dry, season and scatter with paprika. Roast for 15 minutes on a separate baking tray until crispy.
5- Chop the roasted shallots and leeks, squeeze out garlic cloves out of their skins and add to the barley, along with the chilli, both cheeses and half the toasted walnuts. Season and stir well. Fill the squash with the mix, replacing the lid, and bake in the oven for a further 10 minutes.
6- Once ready, scatter the seeds over the squash, along with the remaining toasted walnuts, place in the middle of the table and tell everybody to dig in!
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