Chicken and butternut squash stew: a dairy free recipe

This stew is such a lovely autumnal dish, full of warming flavours, sweet root veggies, and enough chicken that you know it's there - but that doesn't cost a fortune. In fact, it's only got chicken in it because I defrosted some to make a casserole on Sunday, and then dropped the pot of cumin onto the slow cooker and smashed it. Go me! Or something. I wanted something that was suitable for us all, and a replacement for the casserole I had in mind.

This was inspired by a Squash, chicken and couscous recipe at BBC Good Food - but, then heavily adapted as I could see that the squash was never going to cook, and I wanted to use some different ingredients as that was what we had. 

M said that he'd like this with pasta - so that's how he's having it tonight, I preferred it over a portion of curly kale. There's something about the pairing of a rich tomato based sauce with the iron-yness (it's a word) of dark green veggies. 

Chicken and butternut squash stew

Dairy free

Serves 5

Fry light spray (you could use olive oil - about a tablespoon)

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 red chilli (or appropriate amount of lazy chills)

2 red onions, peeled and diced

2 tbsp harrisa paste

1 tsp ground cumin

1tsp ground coriander

2 chicken breasts, diced

2-3 medium carrots, peeled and diced

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced

1 butternut squash, roasted in advance

140g of quinoa, washed in advance

1 punnet (or thereabouts) of cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 litre passata

Fresh coriander to serve (lots if you're me, none if you're M)

Salt and pepper 

Spray a large pan with the Fry light, and add the garlic, and chilli, gently frying until you can smell them

Add the onions and spices and cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes - you want the onions completely soft, but not caramelised

Add the chicken and brown off - about 8 minutes

Add the veggies, soaked quinoa, cherry tomatoes and passata

Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until the veggies are soft, and the quinoa cooked through. It took about half an hour

Serve as you like - either as it is, or with green veggies, or pasta and a liberal sprinkling of that coriander. 

This is today's Blog Every Day November post - on the prompt Food Glorious Food.