Haloumi and Pesto Bake

A friend of ours made this for us, I never got round to getting the recipe, but think this is what was in it and how it is made! 

1 pound of baby potatoes

4 carrots

3 sweet potatoes

2 large courgettes (or 4 small)

Peel the carrots and sweet potatoes and chop into 2 cm square cubes

Steam or boil all the veg above and then place them in a large pan or bowl

1 liter boiling water

1 veg stock cube

100 gm pesto

Mix the ingredients above and pour over the veg

Add pitted green olives and cherry tomatoes to the mixture of veg and stock

Place the mixture in a large oven dish and arrange cubes of Haloumi cheese over the top

Bake in a hot oven until the Haloumi and golden and crispy

This is enough to feed 6-8 people especially if served with rice, it keeps well in the fridge too so can be prepared in advance. 

I haven't got any photos of it at the moment, I will take some next time I make it and add them to the post.

Butternut Squash, Spinach & Blue Cheese Lasagna

• Bake the Butternut squash whole and peel and get rid of seeds once cooked, or peel and chop into roughly 1.5 cm3 shapes.

• Brush with olive oil and bake till cooked but not too soft.

• Spinach, as much as you like, if fresh chop and steam, microwave or stir fry, anything to make it wilt. Frozen spinach works well too.

• Cheese Sauce

         2 oz flour

        1.5 litre milk (Soya milk works well)

         Blue cheese to taste (or aleternative vegan cheese)

• Mix the flour with some milk to make a paste, add more slowly to avoid lumps

• Put in heavy bottomed saucepan on medium light and stir continuously to stop it sticking to the pan, test to see if it has warmed up then crumble as much cheese as you like into it and keep stirring until it thickens, usually happens just when you think it's never going to!

• Cover the pan with cling film if not using right away to stop it forming a skin.

• Put 1/4 of the cheese sauce to once side and mix the spinach with the rest of it.

• Place some of the Butternut Squash in the dish, pour some cheese and spinach over it, put lasagna sheets on top, and so on until you run out of them, then pour the rest of the cheese sauce on top and back in a hot oven (200 C) for roughly 40 min. 

I once eat this in a restaurant and this is my interpretation of it, I am a bit vague about quantities because it really depends on how big the butternut squash is and how big the dish your dish is. But perhaps next time I make I'll try and measure and weigh and update this post.

The time I made this one it came out a bit dry, I overcooked the sauce!