Chicken and pineapple with roasted veg and butternut squash purée

Posted by petra08 on January 12, 2015 · 1 Comment 

I did a big shop, the first of the new year and it was a lot of fruit and veg, in line with a healthy January. The thing is I still have a few things lurking around in the fridge from the holidays that don’t fit the January profile but as I dislike waste I decided that everything still there is ok but when it is gone, it is gone. This is the case with a tub of double cream. Do I need to say that there was no cheese left, what a shame!

We got some great news just before Christmas, we got an allotment. As you might know we had one before and enjoyed fresh vegetables in plenty but gave it up as we moved. We signed up for a new one as soon as we had arrived and was told it would take about three years. We grow some veg in the garden but it is a lot smaller and the foxes seemed to have enjoyed rolling over as many vegetables as possible and sadly very few survived. Now we can grow veg in the garden and at the allotment and hopefully there will be a bigger harvest.

 

Clearing the garden this weekend M pulled up the last of the parsnips, they look great and I thought it would be nice to roast them. I had bought some chicken for dinner and chicken and parsnips sounded good to me.

 

Roasted parsnips and carrots

preparation time 10 minutes 

cooking time 30-35 minutes 

oven 180C or 350F

serves 2

Ingredients

• 2 parsnips
• 2 carrots
• 2 tsp rapeseed oil
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp runny honey
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
• 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

Peel and cube the parsnips and carrots. Mix the remaining ingredients, coat the parsnip and carrot. I usually put everything in a plastic bag, it makes it easy to make sure everything is coated with the spice mix.

 

 

 

Place the parsnip and carrots on a non stick baking sheet and roast.

 

I pickled celery for some acidity and crunch.

 

Chilli pickled celery

preparation time 5 minutes 

cooking time 0 minutes, 30 minutes minimum to pickle

serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 celery stalks
• 1 dl or 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/2 dl raw caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp chilli flakes, more if you want it stronger

Heat the vinegar, salt, sugar and chilli in a pan. Don’t let it boil, take it off the heat when the sugar and salt has dissolved.

 

 

Peel and slice the celery. Pour the warm liquid over the celery and let stand until you are ready to serve.

 

 

I had half a butternut squash and made it in to a purée.

 

Butternut squash purée

preparation time 5 minutes

cooking time 15 minutes + time in blender

serves 2

Ingredients

• 1/2 butternut squash
• 1 potato
• 1 tbsp double cream
• salted water for boiling

Peel, de seed and cut the butternut in to quite large chunks. Do the same to the potato. Place them both in salted water and boil until soft. When cooked through drain and place in a blender with the cream. Blend until smooth and keep warm until serving.

 

Heat a griddle pan and quickly char pineapple slices and the chicken. I butterflied the chicken breasts so they would cook faster and added salt and cayenne pepper before placing in the hot pan. I brushed the pan with oil whilst heating up.

 

 

 

Once griddled I placed the pineapple and the chicken in the oven with the roasting parsnip and carrots for 10 minutes.

 

Serve with the butternut purée, pickle celery and toasted pumpkin seeds.

 

 

The purée was great and kept the meal moist. It was soft and velvety against the cayenne pepper lingering in the background. The combination of flavours and textures worked well and the meal was quite light, a little of the cream went a long way so perhaps not as bad after all.

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed under Allotment/Veg, Butternut Squash, Carrot, Celery, Chicken, Chilli, Fruit, Main course, Parsnip, Pineapple, Potatoes, Recipe · Tagged with butternut puree, Butternut squash purée, roasted parsnips