I bought a bag of diced butternut squash for making soup at the weekend and then the weather turned glorious and I no longer fancied soup so decided to crack open a bag of fregola pasta and make a fregola and butternut squash salad instead.  I think Isreali couscous would probably work instead of the fregola if you can’t get that but the fregola’s nutty flavour does add something here.  Alternatively, quinoa would work really well too.

I feel a bit of a fraud writing a recipe for a salad – the only cooking involved is boiling water!  But it was really yummy and it’s pretty healthy too so here it is.

I used American stye measures for this as who can really be bothered with weighing out vegetables and pasta!

Serves 4

Ingredients

1/2 cup fregola

2 cups diced butternut squash

1 finely chopped shallot

1 large red chill, deseeded and chopped

Olive oil spray

1/2 block Feta

2 spring onions, chopped

3 tablespoons garlic infused extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

1.  Spread the squash, shallot and chilli over a shallow baking tray and spray with the olive oil.

2.  Roast at 200C for 30 minutes.

3.  Remove from the oven and transfer to a large salad bowl.

4.  Boil the pasta for about 10 minutes – you want it to still be a little firm.  Drain and stir into the vegetables.

5.  Whisk together the garlic infused oil and balsamic vinegar and stir through the pasta and vegetables.

6.  In a small frying pan over a low heat, toast the pumpkin seeds until they start to “pop” then remove from the heat and sprinkle over the salad.

7.  Add the feta, cut into small cubes together with the parsley and spring onions and serve.