Butternut squash is one of my favourite veggies – it’s so amazingly good for you (lots of vitamin A and antioxidants) and it tastes so delicious too! However, the thing I don’t like quite so much about butternut squash is the time (and elbow grease) it takes to peel and chop it into chunks. Which is why these butternut boats are so fab, all you need to do is chop the squash in half, take out the seeds and pop it in the oven with some olive oil and it comes out beautifully roasted and soft.

The filling is pretty damn easy to make too, as you just need to boil some rice and then afterwards chuck it in a frying pan for a few minutes with the other ingredients. It’s really filling too and so full of amazing flavours (without requiring a ton of ingredients), plus it looks super impressive so it’s a great dinner party addition! I hope you love it as much as I do!

Ingredients

• 1 medium butternut squash, sliced in half and with the seeds scooped out
• 2 cups washed spinach
• 3 tbsp pine nuts
• 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling the squash
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tbsp tahini
• 1/2 cup brown rice, uncooked
• Small handful of fresh basil

Preheat your oven to 180C, then pop the butternut halves on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and bake for around an hour until it is lovely and soft.

While the squash is cooking, place the rice in a saucepan with about 1 cup water.Bring to the boil and then cook on a medium heat for about 25 minutes (check the instructions on the packet of rice though as cooking times can be slightly different), then drain and set aside.

Then add the garlic, pine nuts and olive oil to a frying pan and sauté on a low heat for a couple of minutes until the garlic has browned and the pine nuts are lightly toasted. Then add in the basil and spinach, stirring for a couple more minutes until it has wilted. Finally add in the brown rice and tahini and stir well.

Pop the spinach and rice mixture into the centres of the squash halves, then garnish with some extra pine nuts, basil and tahini and dig in!

Love, Mrs H xx