Stuffed butternut squash with pearl couscous, cherry tomato, walnuts, parsley and chorizo

When it comes to Autumn, I have a bit of a love-hate relationship. I don’t like the rain, cold weather & the head colds that come with it but I do love the colourful leaves on the ground and the Autumn vegetables & fruits! And one of those ingredients is the star of my recipe today: butternut squash. There are a lot of different kinds of pumpkins & squashes out there to cook with and I’m looking forward to trying some that I haven’t tried before but for my first Autumn recipe this year I’ve decided to stick to my favourite one.

I’ve gone for a stuffed butternut squash, with pearl couscous, cherry tomato, onion, parsley and crispy chorizo. I was a bit torn about using risotto vs couscous, but went with the couscous in the end as my sister commented saying ‘if you go for risotto it’ll be a lot of mushy ingredients’ (credit where credit is due!).

You can tweak this recipe as much as you like in terms of toppings: mushrooms, cranberries, courgette, .. there’s a lot of different options to go for! If you want to tweak the recipe; all you have to do is stick to the basis of this recipe (cooking the butternut squash & couscous and mixing them together), everything else then is up to your own imagination.

I used spelt pearl couscous in my recipe, which is something I hadn’t tried before but it’s super tasty and is great for people with a wheat intolerance. It does still contain gluten though but you can always replace it with gluten free couscous.