Vegan

Roast chilli squash recipe with grilled broccoli and tahini yoghurt

4 as a side/sharing dish
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Looking for a delicious sharing dish? This tempting plant-based recipe of roast chilli squash is perfect for enjoying with friends. Serve with grilled broccoli and tahini yoghurt for a dish that’s too good to resist!

Eating plenty of plants isn’t only a colourful way to eat – it can help to support a healthy menopause, too. Recent evidence shows that women who follow a Mediterranean-style diet reduce their risk of menopausal symptoms, specifically hot flushes and night sweats, by 20%. This diet focuses on polyphenol-packed plant foods such as beans, whole grains, seasonal fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, and extra virgin olive oil, in addition to moderate amounts of oily fish, eggs and dairy, as well as some good-quality meat.

The remarkable pay-off of eating plants may be thanks to our estrobolome – a specialist team of gut bugs that help to detach estrogen from receptors, recycling it back into an active form. If we support these good gut bugs by eating a diverse range of plant fibres, the estrobolome can help us get the best use out of circulating estrogen and relieve menopausal symptoms. In the long-term, a healthy, diverse microbiome can reduce our risk of heart disease and other metabolic illnesses.

Butternut squash is one of our favourites for adding to plant-based dishes. Not only is this versatile ingredient incredibly delicious, it’s also full of wellbeing goodness. It’s high in a number of important vitamins and minerals – including vitamins A and C. Both of these vitamins have a supportive role in helping our immune system to function properly. They also help to mop up damaging free radicals that our cells produce as a natural part of metabolism.

Plus, studies show that eating a healthy diet with plenty of antioxidants (including those found in butternut squash) may help to reduce our risk for certain types of cancer. Even more reason to top up on healthy veggies!

While we use dairy-free yoghurt here to make this recipe vegan, you can easily swap for dairy alternatives if you prefer.

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Ingredients

  • 1 butternut squash, de-seeded and cut into wedges
  • 50ml olive oil
  • 2 tbsp chilli flakes
  • 2 tbsp cumin seeds
  • 300g broccoli spears
  • 2 tbsp tahini
  • 150g dairy-free soy yoghurt
  • ½ lemon, juiced
  • Sea salt and black pepper

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Add the butternut squash wedges to a bowl with the olive oil, chilli, cumin and a pinch of salt and pepper. Mix well.
  2. Place the squash on a baking tray and roast in the oven for about 40 minutes until coloured and a little softened yet still holding its shape.
  3. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook the broccoli spears for about four minutes. Drain, then return to the pan with a drizzle of olive oil. Cook on a medium heatfor about one minute to remove excess water.
  4. Remove the broccoli from the pan and gently toss with the squash.
  5. Make the dressing (you can do this the day before) by stirring the tahini into the yoghurt. Add the lemon juice, season to taste and add a little olive oil to thin it if necessary.
  6. Serve warm.