Roasted squash with harissa avocado and feta salad
A super tasty superfood salad. This exotic dish is packed full of healthy ingredients. Avocados are fantastic skin-supporting foods, high in monounsaturated fats and vitamin E, both excellent for supporting menopausal skin. Butternut squash is rich in vitamin A, another essential vitamin for maintaining healthy skin, teeth, bones, and soft tissue. Both superfoods for menopause have high fibre content, beneficial in the prevention of constipation that often accompanies the hormonal changes during menopause.
Enjoy the added kick of the harissa offset the with full flavoured feta cheese.
Prepared in advance, this dish is delicious served with simple grilled salmon.
Whoever said recipes for menopause are boring, has got it wrong!
Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour slow cooking
Ingredients
1 butternut squash
1 heaped tbsp. harissa, more, or less according to taste
1 tsp cumin seeds, ground
2 ripe avocados
100g mixed salad leaves
200g feta cheese, cut into 1cm cubes
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp sherry, or red wine vinegar
handful of toasted almonds, roughly chopped
sea salt and black pepper to taste
Method
Heat the oven to 180C fan. Carefully cut the butternut squash into roughly 5cm chunks (skin, seeds and all), then, in a roasting tray, rub all over with 1 tbsp olive oil, the harissa paste, sprinkle with ground cumin seeds and season with sea salt and black pepper. Roast for 50 minutes, or until soft, golden and gnarly. Give it a good stir halfway through the cooking time.
With a few minutes to go, place 1 tbsp each of extra-virgin olive oil and sherry, or red wine vinegar, and a little salt and pepper in a large bowl. Halve, peel and destone, dice and gently toss in the avocados, then gently mix in the salad leaves.
When squash is cooked, place on a large serving platter. Use forks to tear the hot squash (skin, seeds and all), Top with the salad, tear over the feta, scatter with almonds and serve.