The Food Diaries

Stuffed & baked mini squashes with walnuts and blue cheese

This recipe works nicely with little squashes which can be served in half portions.

Cut a small round green squash in two cross-way. You can also slice a thin piece off the bottoms to ensure they sit upright in the roasting pan. Gut them of their seeds and sprinkle with a little olive oil.

In a small bowl mix together 3tbs finely chopped walnuts, 3tbs panko (or regular breadcrumbs), 1 finely chopped garlic clove, a sprinkling of dried thyme, sea salt and pepper, 1/4 tsp dried mustard powder (optional) and some crumbled blue cheese. Fill the cavities of the squash with the mixture and drizzle with a little bit of maple syrup and olive oil. 

Bake in a hot oven (200c) till the the squash is nicely golden. Serves 2.

Red endive salad with golden beets, blue cheese & walnuts

Here’s a French classic re-fashioned. Red endives and golden beets provide a lovely contrast in this recipe, though you can easily swap the colours around using yellow endives and red beets instead. Omit the blue cheese for a healthier salad option.

In a salad bowl place 3 red endives, cut in half lengthwise and sliced, 1 small golden beet, scrubbed but still raw, topped and tailed, and very thinly sliced, 1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese, and 1/3 cup toasted chopped walnuts.

To make the salad dressing place the following ingredients in a small jar and shake vigorously: 1 tsp wholegrain mustard, 2 tsp sherry vinegar, 1 tbs walnut oil, 1 tbs rapeseed oil. Pour over the salad. Season with freshly ground sea salt and pepper. 

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Serves 2.

Endive Salad with Shropshire Blue cheese and Walnuts

A nice late winter salad….

- Two endives cut in half lengthwise and sliced

- 1/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, lightly toasted

- Chopped sun-dried tomatoes

- 1/4 cup Shropshire blue cheese (or other similar)

- 2 tbs. sherry vinegar

- 2tbs olive oil

- 1 tbs grainy mustard

Place the endives in a serving bowl. Mash together the blue cheese, vinegar, olive oil and mustard. Drizzle over the endives. Season with the salt and pepper and then sprinkle with the still-warm walnuts and sun-dried tomatoes.