It is Autumn and I happen to have baby butternut pumpkins and my very first pomegranate harvest. Meet roast baby pumpkins, served with a garlic yoghurt sauce, poppy pomegranate, and dill. A seasonal home grown winner, inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe for roast eggplant with buttermilk sauce.

Be mindful not to go overboard with the pomegranate molasses. It is very tart - a nice balance to the sweet roast pumpkin flavour, however a little goes a long way.

Roast pumpkin with pomegranate & garlic yoghurt sauce

Serves 4

Ingredients

4 baby butternut pumpkins (or any other small pumpkin no larger than the size of an orange, that you can split in half and roast)

1 Tbs olive oil

2 tsp pomegranate molasses

120g Greek yoghurt

1/2 clove garlic, minced

sprinkle of salt

8 sprigs of dill

seeds of a pomegranate

1 tsp additional pomegranate molasses for serving

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C.

2. Cut your pumpkins in half length ways and score in a cross hatch pattern, being careful to not pierce the skins.

3. Place the pumpkin halves, cut side up, on a lined backing tray. Drizzle with the olive oil, pomegranate molasses and a sprinkle of salt.

4. Roast for 1 hour, or until the pumpkins are soft and starting to colour.

5. Whilst roasting the pumpkins, combine the yoghurt, minced garlic and salt in a small bowl and remove de-seed the pomegranate.

6. When ready to serve, place the roast pumpkin on a serving tray and top with a spoonful of garlic yoghurt, sprinkle with pomegranate seeds, a very light drizzle of pomegranate molasses, and a sprig of dill.