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In my continuing quest for interesting vegetarian cookery I made this thing last night.

It was really good, I recommend it. If you were doing a vegetarian-only spread, this would work well alongside some kind of fresh and zingy slaw or cucumber and chilli salad as the squash is quite rich and sticky.

Very good in large quantities for any big crowd you’ve got coming. The whole thing can be done in advance and then assembled at the last minute. Best of all, you don’t have to peel the bastard squash, which is always a low point for me in any week.

From Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi

1 butternut squash

1 tsp ground cinnamon

olive oil

bunch coriander

1 small garlic clove

large handful pumpkin seeds

3 tablespoons yoghurt

some sriracha

salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200C

1 Cut the squash in half lengthways and chuck out the seeds. Then cut into 2cm-wide slices. Leave the skin on!!!!

2 Toss the squash in a bowl with some glugs of olive oil and the ground cinnamon and a good grind of pepper, then lay out on a baking sheet and put in the oven for about 35 min. This is now ready – you can leave it to cool in whatever bowl you are going to ultimately present this in.

3 Turn the oven down to 160C and put a tray of pumpkin seeds in for 6 minutes until they are cracked and popped and puffy. These are delicious and worth doing, just in case you were thinking about not bothering.

4 Put the coriander, more olive oil, a big pinch of salt and the small garlic clove into a food processor and whizz until you’ve got a fragrant herby oil.

5 Swirl together the sriracha and yoghurt

Assemble by dropping blobs of the yoghurt over the squash, then the herb oil and then scatter the pumpkin seeds on last.

I also made a cucumber and broccoli salad thing from Anna Jones, but it was less successful so let’s just pretend I didn’t.