butternut squash: light but filling

I was going to make shepherds pie tonight (using a carrot-swede topping in place of potato) but I think my husband is pied out. After fish pie on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, I’ve finally done the unfathomable: filled him up.

This morning, he actually requested something a bit lighter. “Could we have a salad?” he asked innocently. Normally, I’d jump at the chance – but I didn’t buy ingredients for a salad, I bought them for a shepherds pie! At least mince freezes well.

Instead, I made one of my favourites – butternut squash, blue vinney and lentil boats. Though it’s hearty and warming, it has a lovely sweet lightness to it. Click here to read how to do it.

a healthy and filling cold-weather salad

I was flipping through Jamie Oliver’s new cookery book Jamie at Home this weekend, which I have to say I quite like, overall, if we excuse the atrocious recipe names (i.e. the motherload sauce or absolutely fantastic partridge stew) and the messy presentation. It’s not too often these days that I take away four or five ideas from a first read, keen to try them out.

The book is separated by seasons, and in the winter chapter, there’s a winter salad section. And I really like some of these: asian duck and squash salad and and another that reads like a list of crudités, but with a milky parsley dressing.

But it got me thinking (and hungry) on Sunday afternoon. Knowing I was going to concoct a roasted root vegetable stew with cheesy dumplings that evening, I wanted something light, but filling; tangy, yet sweet. I think what I came up with was just the thing.

The blue vinney (the best reduced-fat blue cheese out there) is a critical ingredient in the salad. It is just key to keep the portion size reasonable – i.e. 30-35g. Use 2/3 of it crumbled in the salad, and use the remainder in the salad dressing – that way, the light taste of blue vinney will distribute throughout the salad.

To bulk this up, serve with some wholemeal bread – or if there’s someone fearful of food without meat, a few grilled slices of Danish bacon is quite nice. (I’ll admit I did make this salad while I was on my own.) But the variety of crunches with the soft creamy bites of blue vinney made for quite a pleasant meal.

Spinach salad with apple, celery and blue vinney
(serves 1)

for the salad:
50g spinach leaves
2 stalks of celery, trimmed, sliced lengthways, then chopped
1 royal gala apple, cored and sliced, saving one slice for the dressing
2 spring onions, chopped
20-25 g blue vinney, crumbled

for the dressing:
2-3 tbsp of white wine vinegar
flesh of one slice of apple
a few sprigs of fresh parsley
10 g blue vinney
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine the salad ingredients into a large salad bowl. In another smaller bowl, combine the ingredients for the dressing, and whiz with a hand blender.

Pour the salad dressing over the ingredients in the large bowl and toss throughout.

boats of butternut squash

About a year ago, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall published an excellent set of recipes in which the butternut squash, cut in half, acted as a ‘boat’ to hold additional tasty passengers.

Lentils and blue cheese (preferably in my mind, blue vinney) were the best two ingredients he recommended. So last night, I used a combination of lentils, blue vinney, red onion, and rosemary in my mixture.

It takes time, but the preparation of the recipe is extremely simple. Simply cut the squash in half, prick with a fork, and roast for about 45 minutes. Remove most of the squash, leaving about a 1cm rim around the whole of the squash, and mix with the cooked lentils, onion and rosemary. Add the mixture back into the squash, top with blue vinney, and place back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

Absolutely delightful.

But don’t stop with squash – aubergine works a treat too. I remember a Rosemary Conley recipe (a bit naff but nonetheless commendable for her low-fat tricks) from years ago recommending stuffed aubergine with lentils and tomatoes. Topped with Swiss or Parmesan, it makes a fabulously simple meal.

pasta autunno

Pasta with aubergines, blue vinney and rocket: one of my favourites. I've made it several times before. I've learned that tweaking it slightly can make a very noticable difference. This week I'm adding stilton instead of blue vinney (one of my purchases from the cheese festival last Saturday) and using tricolore fusilli to give it the feeling of autumn.

I've prepared the aubergines several ways - roasting, sauteeing, a combination of the two. Roasting large chunks works best - fleshy, soft, but not too oily.

Blue vinney naturally has about 30% less fat than other blue cheeses, so be careful not to overuse stilton.

(serves 2 - one large and one small portion)
300 g tricolore fusilli
75 g rocket
2 medium aubergines, sliced into rounds and quartered
20 sprays olive oil
100 g stilton


Preheat the oven to 200 C. Place the aubergines in the roasting tin and spray with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Roast for 45 minutes.

About 15 minutes before the aubergines finish roasting, bring a large pot of water to boil. Allow the pasta to boil for 7-8 minutes.

Crumble the blue cheese and set to the side. Remove the aubergines, spray with a bit more olive oil, season with pepper and set to the side as well.

Drain the pasta and return to the pot. Add the aubergines, rocket and 3/4 of the blue cheese. Mix together.

Divide into two bowls and top with the remaining blue cheese. Serve immediately.

The colours add a stunning autumn touch to the dish. Serve it on a weeknight or as a first course at a dinner party.

haiku for blue vinney

Tasty with apples

Stilton has too much fat

Try its Dorset kin

aubergine and blue cheese pasta with rocket

This is a dish I've made a couple of times before, with some variations. I didn't have any outside inspiration for it - it was just the production of a random night in the kitchen.

When I first mentioned this dish I'd designed to a colleague, her first reaction was 'aubergines with blue cheese - ugh!' I was taken aback - to me it sounds excellent. Blue cheese is a strong flavor, and it pairs well with other vegetables - mushrooms and spinach, for example.

An excellent weeknight meal, it's fast and it's healthy. To my husband, it 'tastes too good to be healthy,' which is ideal!

Just because I'm trying to eat healthily doesn't mean I shouldn't get to taste the creamy blue cheese and the slippery texture of the roasted aubergine. It's PORTION SIZE that's key here: while most of us are used to gigantic bowls of pasta, it's not necessary to the success of the dish or the capacity of our stomachs.

Bulk this dish out with lovely peppery rocket - or as much aubergine as you'd like. The only things to limit are the pasta and the cheese. Here's how:

-use wholewheat pasta. (you can use penne, spaghetti, fusilli, they all work well)

-try blue vinney cheese. (this is a regional dorset blue cheese that naturally has 1/3 less fat than stilton.)

-use a spray olive oil. (you often will never need as much olive oil as recipes call for)

A central tenet of my healthy cooking: always try reduced fat options. Some low-fat alternatives taste revolting, but reduced fat is a good compromise.

(serves 2)
200 g aubergine (1/2 of a large one), chunkily diced
1 pack of rocket (or as much as you'd like)
300 g wholemeal penne (100 g for me, but 200g for the husband)
40 g sprays of olive oil
approx 100 g blue vinney cheese

Preheat the oven to 200C. Dice the aubergine and put into a foil-lined roasting tin. Spray with 1/2 of olive oil spray. Roast for approximately 30-40 minutes, spraying more as necessary throughout.

With have about 10 minutes left of roasting to go, boil the pasta. Since I want to make sure I only have a specific amount of pasta, I sometimes boil it separately than the rest after I weigh my portion out. Otherwise, if it's an easy ratio to figure out, I can boil it all together and then separately after (i.e., 1 scoop for me, 2 scoops for him, 1 scoop for me, 2 scoops for him, etc).

Drain the pasta. Return to two separate pots for finishing. Fold in the rocket - the heat of the pasta will soften it, so there's no need to cook it. Scoop the aubergine into the bowls from the roasting tin, splitting evenly between the two bowls. Add the cheese to the pasta. For me, I keep it to 50 g only. Crumble and mix into the pasta. For him, I don't bother weighing it out. I add a little olive oil to his if it seems like it needs it.
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This dish is easily adaptable - if he decides he wants more cheese, it's easily added without much fuss. If I want more rocket, there's just no problem. These types of meals are crucial when 1/2 of the household is watching what it eats - and that 1/2 is the one doing the cooking.

For me, according to the WLR database, the dish is 525 calories - very low cal. But it's so easily bulked up - if I need more pasta, I can have it. On its own, though, it's an extremely suitable meal.