Pasta with spinach pesto and roasted gem squashes

What can be better than a little mid-week pasta! I really enjoy one or two pasta dishes every week, as it's so easy, yet so good. So here's another pasta dish of mine that I cooked yesterday. Many of these items were in my last shopping bag and now they are here on the plate. I was quite keen to use the chunky Paccheri Rigati pasta I got. The different pasta type added something new to a fairly basic pesto and vegetable combination. I also roasted gem squash rings to add to the dish and they made a nice impact indeed.

Here is my easy recipe for Pasta with spinach pesto and roasted gem squashes

Pesto ingredients

1 cup baby spinach

Handful of basil leaves

4 tbsp pine nuts

1 garlic clove

4 tbsp olive oil

Other ingredients

2 gem squashes

Olive oil for brushing the squashes

Paccheri Rigati pasta or pasta of your choice

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Method

Make the pesto by puréeing the pesto ingredients into an even paste.

Cut rings from the gem squashes. I removed the centre with a small cookie cutter. Brush the rings with olive oil and roast in the oven until nicely roasted.

Cook the pasta, combine it with the pesto and serve with the squash rings. Enjoy!

I want to share this dish with Chris from Thinly Spread and Pasta Please! cooking challenge, which is co-hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes.

Your VegHog

Stuffed gem squashes

Gem squashes are everywhere now and I just can't resist them because they are so cute. Their flesh is a little bit similar to courgettes and the taste is mild. Taste wise they might not be my absolute favourite squashes, as I prefer something more nutty, but they are very good for a change.

I made again stuffed gem squashes as their shape is really suitable for good-looking stuffed squash halves (here's another stuffed gem squash recipe of mine). Pearled spelt based stuffing mix felt like the right choice for these, and I made a really uncomplicated and easy version. Have a look how I made them.

Ingredients

4 gem squashes

1 orange bell pepper

1 shallot

2 garlic cloves

3 tomatoes

½ cup pearled spelt

1 vegetable stock cube

50 g cheddar and mozzarella cheese mix grated

Olive oil

Salt, black pepper and herbes de Provence to taste

Method

Chop the shallot and garlic finely. Also chop the bell pepper and tomatoes.

Cook the shallot and pepper soft in olive oil. Then add the garlic and the tomatoes.

After a while simmering also add the pearled spelt, vegetable stock cube and ½ cup water.

Let it all simmer under lid until the spelt is cooked al dente. Then season and add the grated cheese.

Cut the squashes in half and remove the seeds. This leaves a suitable hole for our stuffing.

Quickly fry the squash halves in olive oil in a pan on each side. Stuff them with the spelt and vegetable mix and bake at 180C for 30-40 minutes.

Serve for example with homemade chunky chips on the side like I did.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Cauliflower and gem squash bake

A good vegetarian oven bake is always good and I welcome them quite frequently to my life. Vegetable or pasta bakes are real comfort food for me.

This recipe is for making a slightly different cauliflower bake than you're probably used to and I made this just because I happened to have all these ingredients at home. Nothing against impulse cooking though since this turned out to be a very nice dish. Give it a try with the help of these easy steps.

Ingredients

1 cauliflower

2 gem squashes

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 halloumi

100g grated emmental cheese

1tbsp vegetable stock powder

Vegetable oil

Sage

Rosemary

Black pepper

Salt

Method

Wash and cut the cauliflower florets off and steam them until almost done. Chop the gem squashes into small cubes and also chop the onion and garlic.

Chop the halloumi into cubes and fry the cubes in vegetable oil until they are golden brown with a bouncy texture. Then add the garlic, rosemary and sage to the halloumi and let infuse at low heat for 10 minutes.

In the meanwhile fry the gem squash cubes and the chopped onion in another pan until the onions are translucent. Add vegetable stock powder and little water and simmer until the squash is almost cooked. Season with salt and pepper. Then combine the contents of the halloumi pan with this one.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Place the previously steamed cauliflower florets into an oven dish. Place the contents of the squash pan on top of the cauliflower. Sprinkle some grated emmental on top and bake at 180C for about 20 minutes.

And there you have it, an autumnal squash bake.

Your VegHog

Stuffed gem squashes with baked new potatoes

It's raining outside, so finally I'm officially allowed to post squash dishes like this, right? Gem squashes are small, mild, creamy and delicate. They taste nice and subtle and are quite versatile little vegetables. Today I roasted them with a stuffing and served with lovely baked new potatoes.

I decorated the squashes with some parmesan crisps (obviously made out of vegetarian parmesan), and don't they look cute on these gems! You can make some quickly: just grate vegetarian parmesan and place it on baking paper in circles. Bake at 200C for about 5 minutes until they are crispy. Let them chill after baking. Make sure you don't eat all of them before you get to decorating the dish.

Ingredients for the roasted gem squashes:

3 gem squashes

Vegetarian pasta cheese

Sage

Parsley

Rosemary

Lemon zest

Lemon & pepper bread crumbs

2 garlic cloves

Ingredients for the baked new potatoes:

New potatoes

Olive oil

Sea salt

Paprika powder

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Wash the new potatoes and cut off any bad bits but don't peel them. Roll them in a olive oil, sea salt and paprika powder mix and place on a baking tray. Bake them in an oven dish for about 40 minutes until they are soft with a golden brown outer skin. They could take longer depending on the size.

Cut the gem squashes in half and remove the seeds. Scoop some of the squash out by leaving a thin squash shell. Save some of the squash insides for the stuffing and then prepare the other stuffing ingredients. Grate some vegetarian pasta cheese (same as vegetarian parmesan) and mix it with the chopped herbs, garlic and grated lemon zest. Add some lemon and pepper bread crumbs and there you have the lemony and cheesy stuffing.

Place the stuffing on the squash halves and bake them at 180C for about 30 minutes until the squash halves are baked and the cheese has melted. Decorate with the parmesan crisps and serve with the baked new potatoes. I served them with a side salad. If you think the dish is too dry add some homemade herb butter to the potatoes.

Enjoy this autumn dish and keep warm!

Your VegHog