Butternut and butterbean dip

Ok, so I've been doing a lot of recipes with butternut squash lately (see here) but this should be the last one for quite a while, as I've just about finished off the massive glut we had for a few weeks.

Just a simple spiced dip for lunch, a kind of squash and bean houmous (more houmous here if you don't fancy squash), it was really great with some celery and toast. It's not a recipe but more of a houmous variation. It tasted great so I figured I'd post it.

Spicy squash bean burgers

It’s barbecue time here in the UK! We’ve had gorgeous weather for the past week or two which has coincided really nicely with the easter bank holidays.

For a squashy twist on the run of the mill beanburger veggies are so often served up, try these. They’re really easy, tasty, and freeze well, so you can whip one and whack it on the grill if needed in an emergency (!). Load them up in freshly baked baps with homemade guacamole (or perhaps some coleslaw made with red cabbage and fennel) and enjoy alfresco eating.

Makes 4 large burgers

Butternut squash gnocchi with spinach and herb pesto

Until I made this, I’d never attempted gnocchi before, but I’d done quite a bit of reading up on how to make them super tender and light to avoid the out of the packet rubberiness. This article from Heidi Swanson at 101 Cookbooks is fantastic. She talks about her best gnocchi recipe having no egg in at all, which I wasn’t quite ready for! However, I took her advice and I did use the bare minimum of egg to bind the dough. When you’ve made it up, it’ll be quite tacky (I think this is to do with the water content of the squash). At this point I was very scared – should I add more flour and risk them becoming chewy? But I pressed on, ignoring my instincts and worries, and the result was light and delicious.

I had quite a bit of spinach to use up so made some herb pesto warmed up with a hint of chilli, which paired perfectly with the squash. I used thyme and sage as I think they go really well with the nutty squash flavour, but you could use whatever herbs you’ve got.

Roasted rhubarb and stem ginger tart

Roasting rhubarb is something I hadn't tried until today, but I'd wanted to for a while after reading and seeing various people do it. Don't overlook it for rhubarb - it turns into melty, caramelised loveliness when you roast it and allow the flavours to develop. Stem ginger is really good friends with rhubarb and it creates the most wonderful syrup when you roast it with some of the juice and light brown sugar. That'd be great as a dessert on its own, but what's better than a warm, rich and crumbly almond pastry tart served with ice cream?

Makes enough for a 8 inch tart tin, plus 6 jam tarts

Rhubarb fool (the not-too-naughty version)

A great way to use rhubarb – a lovely spring pudding. Being slightly scared of eating as much cream as a fool requires, I made this with half yoghurt and half cream, and the result was much lighter but just as delicious. This amount would serve 6 or even 8. It’d also be great with ginger – add a bit of stem ginger and its syrup to the cooking rhubarb, and top with lightly bashed ginger biscuits.