Harvest Festival Pumpkin Salad Recipe

This recipe comes courtesy of Nick Baylis, our fantastic volunteer chef, who ran the kitchen at our Harvest Festival. This dish was a particular favourite of the visitors.

Pumpkin Salad:

The day before you plan to make it soak some butter beans overnight.
After soaking, cook until tender. Using a pressure cooker for this dramatically reduces cooking time and hence saves energy!
Leave to cool. (Alternatively just buy a can of butter beans.)

Chop a pumpkin into about 1cm cubes. If fairly young, keep the skin on, otherwise peel it first. Roast the pumpkin in a little oil, salt, pepper and whole fennel seeds until nicely coloured and tender. Set aside to cool. You could also fry the pumpkin with similar results.

Fry the butter beans in a little oil for a few minutes either side. Be careful not to put too many beans in the frying pan, otherwise they won't brown - fry in batches if necessary. You're aiming for a slightly crunchy, golden brown crust on the beans. Season with salt and pepper.

Finely chop plenty of sorrel (and/or lettuce, spinach, beat leaves etc etc) and mix carefully with the warm pumpkin and beans. Be gentle at this stage, otherwise you'll end up with a dense mush.

Serve the salad on a plate with some chopped feta, and a dressing of lemon, yoghurt and garlic. The dressing should be mostly lemon, a small amount of garlic and a bit of yoghurt to bind. This salad would also work nicely with curd cheese.

Oven-dried tomatoes....

In preparation for our 2011 Harvest Festival we're trying out various preserves to make sure there's plenty of produce to enjoy for all. These tomatoes were harvested today by our volunteers, and will last in the cupboard to make lovely pizzas toppings or salad ingredients.

Oven-dried tomato recipe

1. Harvest tomatoes of any variety, shape or size.

2. Leave small ones whole, but medium ones in half lengthways, cut large ones into quarters lengthways.

3. Place in a baking tray (cut ones should be placed cut-side up).

4. Place in the oven on a very low heat (between 50-100 degrees C).

5. Cook for 4-6 hours depending on the size of the tomatoes.

6. They are ready when they look shrivelled up like sun-dried tomatoes.

7. Leave to cool then store in a jar with a few springs of thyme (or rosemary or garlic etc), completely covered with a good olive oil.