Sweet spiced stuffed squash

Serves

4 People

Cooking Time

45 minutes

Season

Autumn

Winter

Dietary

Vegetarian

Gluten Free

Recipe by Chloe Edwards of Seven Sisters' Spices.

"This recipe was inspired by my friend Myriam Murray who shared a recipe for sweet pumpkin. While I had heard of pumpkin pie, I had never before encountered a whole sweet baked pumpkin or squash recipe & instantly loved the idea. You can play around with the fruit and nut combination – flavours I look forward to trying are Date & Pecan, Apricot & Hazelnut – I also think it would be delicious with some cooking apple flesh grated in & maybe a little coconut…Serve hot or cold. Delicious cold with Greek yoghurt for breakfast or hot with vanilla ice cream for dessert."

Ingredients

Small round squash (around 750g)
50g rolled oats
30g butter
20g soft brown sugar
½ tablespoon ground cinnamon
50g flaked almonds
100g dried fruit (I used a mix of cranberries, candied peel, raisins & sultanas)
1 tbsp maple syrup
Extra cinnamon for sprinkling

Method

Step 1
Preheat your oven to 180c (160c fan).
Carefully halve the squash widthways with a large sharp knife and scoop out the seeds.

Step 2
Put the oats, butter, sugar & cinnamon in a large bowl and mix them together with your fingers, as you would make a crumble topping.
Add the flaked almonds & dried fruit & stir in with a wooden spoon.

Step 3
Fill the cavities of each half of squash with your mixture, pressing it down as you go, it should slightly overfill the cavities, making a small mound above the height of the squash flesh.Drizzle each half with the maple syrup and sprinkle a generous pinch of cinnamon over the exposed squash edge.

Step 4
Cover loosely with foil and pop in the centre of your hot oven, bake for 20 minutes or until the flesh of the squash is soft and the filling is crunchy & lightly browned.