Caramelised Sweet Chilli Butternut with Sage, Rosemary, Pumpkin Seeds and Hemp Hearts
Butternut is awesome, but it’s damn hard to peel. So, we all buy ready skinned butternut in microwaveable plastic bags and we “nuke it dead” without much thought. But, there’s sooooo much more you can do with it; it’s a veritable wonder-veg. Butternut goes particularly well with a touch of sweetness, a dash of chilli and a sprinkling of sage. It’s also grand roasted with rosemary and sprinkled with pumpkin seeds. With all these factors in mind, I simply had roast a butternut today!
Ingredients
- Large butternut
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon red chilli 🌶 flakes
- 1 teaspoon garlic 🧄 powder
- Handful of rosemary 🌿
- Handful of sage 🪴
- Handful Italian parsley 🌿
- ¼ cup maple syrup (make sure it’s vegan friendly)
- Combination of pumpkin 🎃 seeds (sunflower, hemp hearts and olive dust, sesame seeds. Any crunchy combo will do)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Method
Make the oil mixture at least 20 minutes before roasting the butternut, it needs time so that the flavours can infuse deliciously. Combine the vegetable oil with the chilli, garlic powder, salt, pepper and half the rosemary that you’ve stripped from the branch.
Stab the butternut all over with a sharp knife to vent the gourd so that it doesn’t explode in the microwave.
Microwave the entire gourd with the skin on for 12-15 minutes on medium power. Turn every 3-4 minutes. (If you don’t have a microwave, boil the entire gourd in a pot of boiling water for 15-20 minutes, depending of size)
Now that the skin is soft it’s easy to peel. Told you that there was a trick. Haha 😂.
Allow the butternut to cool.
Cut the gourd in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds with a fork ( don’t use a spoon, which is intuitive, a fork does a much better job)
slice ½ inch thick slices along the length. Lay the slices on a greased baking tray
Spinkle the chilli oil mixture over the butternut slices. Drizzle with maple syrup. Add extra rosemary stalks to the roasting pan.
Roast at 180 degrees Celsius for 40 minutes. Turn every 10 minutes. Drizzle with extra maple syrup halfway through the roasting time.
When the butternut slices are golden brown and caramelised, sprinkle with diced Italian parsley and sage. Return to the oven for a minute to release the oils in the herbs.
Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds or a pumpkin seed mixture. I’ve used pumpkin seeds, olive dust and hemp hearts.
Enjoy!
All images are my own, shot with my iPad and manipulated using Art Studio
Recipe was developed by me