Maple roasted pumpkin with toasted pine nuts

I don’t understand people who say they don’t eat vegetables. I have spent along time thinking about this and have come up with only one reason why.

They were brought up on meals served with a side of vegetables boiled within an inch of their lives and believe veggies are meant to disintegrate when picked up with a fork, and served a dreary shade of grey. I’m pleased I got that of my chest!
Please don’t think I am jumping on the vegetarian bandwagon or a crazed health fanatic, as I am and always will be a shameless gluttonous carnivore. I just think that everything on your plate should be treated as a main event…Vegetables included.

Serves 4

1kg butternut pumpkin cut into rustic chunks

¼ cup maple syrup (the proper stuff, trust me it’s a good investment)

2 tablespoons olive

¼ cup toasted pine nuts

1 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes

Sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 200ºC and line an oven tray with baking paper.

Combine pumpkin, olive oil, maple syrup and chilli on your baking tray and mix well. Flatten out and season with sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste.

Cook until pumpkin is deliciously soft and caramelised …approximately 30 – 40 minutes.

Toast pine nuts gently in a small pan over a low heat until they are lovely and brown… be careful not to turn your back as they only take a second to burn

Arrange on a serving plate and sprinkle with toasted pine nuts.

I dare a veggie hater to not enjoy this…