Crusted munchkin pumpkin slices with potato mash and salad

And it's pumpkin time again! I liked this dish very much and I think I made quite a cute presentation out of it. I absolutely love potato mash, it just goes with anything and whenever, and it really goes well with pumpkin. These crusted pumpkins are similar to the Crusted Harlequin squash wedges, a recipe inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi.

This is how you can prepare this dish.

The salad

Purple gem lettuce

Small tomatoes

Bread for homemade croutons

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Nettle salt (or normal salt)

Black pepper

The pumpkins

1-2 munchkin pumpkins

Vegetable oil

Breadcrumbs

1 lemon's zest

Thyme

Rosemary

Parsley

Black pepper

The potato mash

300g potatoes

25g butter

100ml milk

2tsp salt

You can make the salad first as it can wait in the fridge for the rest to be prepared. I made my croutons of walnut bread, but you can use any nice bread that you have. Dice the bread and place the dices in an oven dish. Sprinkle olive oil and salt on them, stir and bake until crispy. Stir couple of times during the baking. Cut the tomatoes in half and the gem lettuce in slightly smaller pieces. Make a simple dressing of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and mix it into the salad. Place the croutons on the salad just before serving.

For the crusted pumpkins I used again the cute small munchkin pumpkins. Prepare a crust mix for the pumpkins by mixing breadcrumbs with thyme, rosemary, parsley, lemon zest and black pepper. Use fresh herbs if you have some as the herbiness is then more intense. Slice the pumpkins into thin slices and place them into an oven dish. Brush them with vegetable oil and sprinkle the herb crust on them. Bake the crusted pumpkin slices at 180C for about 30 minutes until the pumpkins are fully cooked and the crust is crispy.

Make the potato mash parallel to the crusted pumpkins. I normally put butter, milk and salt into my mash. For presentation I sprinkled nettle salt on the top of the mash.

Place all the components nicely on a plate for serving. This can be an autumnal vegetarian Sunday roast or just a nice dinner.

Stay hungry!

Your VegHog