Need inspo for your next dinner party with friend? Said you’d cook a meal for your parents whilst you’re back over reading week?
This is my favourite, go-to ‘fancy’ meal because it tastes delicious and is really easy to prepare. Despite being fairly budget-friendly, I’m aware that altogether this is a lot more expensive than your typical student meal. This is one that I make if I’m feeling like treating myself and want something a bit extra, or putting in more effort for dinner with my boyfriend or friends!
This recipe serves 4, but you can adjust the quantities to suit your needs!
Ingredients:
- 4x red bell peppers
- 2x bags of sliced butternut squash (you can use a whole butternut squash and cut it yourself, but i don’t have the patience for that!)
- 1x 125g crumbly (soft) goat’s cheese (you can use more if you like it more cheesy)
- 2x end slices of a loaf of bread (great for using up the last of a loaf – you can also just use the crusts from a few slices if you don’t have an end piece spare)
Optional sides
- Coleslaw
- Chips
- Cous cous
- Pitta bread
Recipe:
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees c (fan)
- Dice the butternut squash. I aim for 1cm squared cubes, but it doesn’t matter if yours are a bit bigger
- Fry in oil until cooked and squishy. This takes me about 10-15 minutes. I love frying the butternut squash in garlic oil and seasoning with salt, pepper, and mixed herbs, but vegetable oil works fine too
- Whilst the butternut squash is frying, tear your slice of bread into breadcrumbs. Place on a baking tray with baking paper and cook for about 3 minutes, until they are nice and crispy. Set aside
- Slice the peppers in half vertically, and scoop out and remove the seeds
- Take the butternut squash pan off the heat, and add the breadcrumbs and crumble most of the goat’s cheese. Stir until combined
- Using a spoon, fill each pepper with the combined mixture. I like mine to be as stuffed as possible
- Put the stuffed peppers on the baking tray, and cover in tin foil
- Leave to cook for 30 mins
- Take off the tin foil and cook for a further 20 minutes
- My favourite step – using the remaining goat’s cheese, add a lump to the top of each pepper. This will melt and taste delicious. Put back in the oven for 10 minutes
- Remove from oven and serve with your favourite sides
- Enjoy
Hopefully this has inspired you to break out of your pesto pasta meal routine and try cooking something new this week! There are so many varieties of this recipe online, and you could easily replace the filling with a multitude of other ingredients!