Meals for under £10: Roast Pumpkin and Charred Onion Salad

It may sound autumnal but it can be served warm or cold all year round with the squashes that are in season.

Make it posh or not – serve it up in a big bowl or be creative and make a pretty plate of it.

What you will need:

30ml olive oil, with extra for drizzling
4 small onions, halved through their middle (like through their equator)
500g piece of pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and cut into golfball-sized chunks
100g curd cheese
a small handful of flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220°C/gas 7.
2. Rub a large ovenproof frying pan with a little bit of oil (an ovenproof one saves on washing up). Put the onions, cut-side down, into the pan and fry over a high heat for a good five minutes, without moving them, until coloured.
3. In a large bowl, toss the pumpkin with the remaining oil and season with salt and pepper.
Add to the pan of onions. Now you can move the onions. Give the pan a good shake so the onions come free and the pumpkin is mixed in. Put the pan into the oven and roast for 25 minutes, until the pumpkin is golden and dark on the outside.
4. Take the pan out of the oven, pour the veg into a serving bowl, dot the curd cheese over the vegetables in splodges, season with black pepper and salt, drizzle with olive oil and toss the parsley over the top. Done.
Recipe from My Kind of Food by John Torode, published by Headline, out now, priced £25.