Along with avocado, feta cheese and biltong, butternut is an exceptionally loved ingredient in South Africa. And with reason, it really is a healthy, tasty, substantial and versatile ingredient. There is pretty much nothing butternut can’t do, it’s a wonderful soup, pureé, mash or even dessert when turned into a fritter. The only downside to butternut is the preparation of it, which can be a little hard work. Best way to tackle it is to slice the ends off, peel it, halve it and then chop it up into whatever shape you’re after. If growing your own butternut, be sure to offer it as much sunlight as you can, as well as good drainage – they love to wrap their little roots around everything they can reach!
The pre-cut stuff you buy is no comparison, so put in the little bit of elbow grease. Luckily, the rest of this recipe is ridiculously easy. You slice and roast the wedges, and drizzle them with the salsa verde-style sauce. A little note on the sauce: it really is a base for you to play around with depending on what herbs you have in the fridge and what the rest of your meal is looking like. For example, make it more minty if the butternut is accompanying lamb, or add more coriander if you’re eating something curried. There are no rules here!
Roasted Butternut with Salsa Verde-y Sauce
Butternut
1 butternut peeled, seeds scooped out and cut into wedges.
olive oil
salt and pepper
Salsa Verde
1 bunch of mix of herbs such as parsley, mint, coriander, basil (you can use all of these or even just one or two)
¼ C (60 ml) extra virgin olive oil
1 clove of garlic, peeled
2-3 anchovy fillets
zest of ½ a lemon
salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 180 ºC.
Place the butternut wedges on a roasting tray, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes. Once the butternut is cooked through, turn the oven up to 210 ºC and let the wedges colour, but keep an eye on them as you don’t want them to burn. This should take about 10 minutes.
Make the salsa verde-style sauce by blending the herbs together with the olive oil using a stick blender. Then adding the rest of the ingredients. Taste and adjust the seasoning and acidity.
See more of our favourite seasonal winter veg recipes here!
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