Vegetarian dinner

The My friend Giles is a veggie and he came for dinner yesterday evening. There is so much gorgeous veggie food out there there's no need to cook the usual "veggie pasta" when your friends come for dinner. Mix it up a bit and make it interesting! 

For starter I served wholemeal pita breads with houmous, olives, smoky roasted red peppers and sundried tomatoes. A delicious and simple meze that guests can nibble on whilst the main in cooking. 

For the main I cooked delicious puff pastry parcels filled with butternut squash  flavoured with autumnal spices. This was served with a kale and feta gratin and a bright fresh green salad with lemon and a sprinkling of mixed seeds to freshen it all up. 

Ingredients (3 pastries)

1 sheet shop bought butter puff pastry, 1 egg, 1 small butternut squash, 1 tbsp butter, 1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp ground ginger, 1 tsp garam Marsala, salt and pepper to taste, grated rind of 1 lemon, 1 spring onion. 

Preheat the oven to 180 celcius. Peel the squash using a potato peeler, cut in half and use a spoon to scrape out the seeds. Dice, then boil in a large pan of salted water until very soft and tender. Drain the squash and mash with the butter, spices, lemon rind and seasoning. Finely slice the spring onion and stir in to the squash, set aside to cool. 

Once cool take the puff pastry sheet and using a rolling pin roll out slightly so it's around 3mm thick. Cut in to 6 square pieces, they don't have to be perfect squares so no need to use a ruler as you gather the edges up anyway! Divide the butternut squash mash between 3 of the pieces, use a little water to dampen the edges and then cover with another piece of pastry and press around the edges to seal. I like to scrunch the edges up a little to make them look rustic. Brush with a little beaten egg, place on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown and puffed. 

I served the pasties with a kale gratin, to be honest I prefer this made with spinach as its softer and silky, however kale was a nice change. If you use spinach just sub the kale for the same volume of defrosted frozen spinach squeezed of any liquid. 

Ingredients

200g kale, 200g crumbled feta cheese, 1 pot creme fraiche, salt and pepper, 1/2 grated nutmeg, 50g cheddar cheese (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180 celcius. Blanch the kale in plenty of boiling salted water until just cooked. Drain very well. Mix the kale with the rest of the ingredients (excluding the cheddar), tip in to an ovenproof dish, scatter with the grated cheddar cheese and bake for 30 minutes until bubbling and golden. 

Don't forget a large mixed green salad, I used watercress, spinach and rocket dressed very simply with lemon juice, olive oil, seasoning and a sprinkling of mixed seeds.