Roast squash & lentil salad for the continuing quince glut

Roast pumpkin and puy lentils with pickled quince, sage and hazelnuts. Plus, the pleasure of pickling quince.

Recently, I shared some pumpkin soup recipes we might all consider making in atonement for the horrors inflicted on pumpkins at Halloween. Then, last week, we talked about quince. Well, this week, I’m combining the two in a gloriously warming lentil, squash and pickled quince salad for a chilly autumnal night.

Ways with pickled quince

The pickled quince recipe below is based on one Nigel Slater wrote many moons ago, which I have in my browser favourites and return to every November when the quince are bounteous. If you make a batch of this using the quantities below you will have more than you need for the recipe, but it keeps for weeks in the fridge and it will also serve you well when you have leftover roast ham or blue cheese. The pickled wedges make a lovely, just the right side of odd, addition to a cheeseboard too. Plus, I’ll have another recipe with pickled quince for you in a couple of weeks, so best make a batch now.

Finally, don’t discard the pickling juice, which is both sweet and sour with an intoxicating, boudoir-esque fragrance. It can be mixed with tonic or fizzy water for a very grown-up non-alcoholic aperitif that tastes a bit like a shrub.

Roast pumpkin and puy lentils with pickled quince, sage and hazelnuts

Leave the skin on the squash for extra texture (it’s not at all tough) and colour, plus it stops the squash from falling apart and gives the dish a hearty, robust feel. It’s all about texture here – the soft lentils with the crispy sage, creamy pumpkin flesh against the crunch of hazelnuts. I’ve sprinkled it all with some roasted pumpkin seeds just to add even more crunchy interest, the recipe for you which you’ll find in my recent pumpkin soup recipe.

Serves 2