Butternut squash is the most glorious of vegetables.  But how can it possibly feature in a blog of recipes for travelling – a website for cooks who want good food without too much effort, and who are probably working in a very restricted kitchen – if they have a “kitchen” at all?  After all, to peel butternut squash requires a very sharp peeler, strong arm muscles, time, and determination.

Not with this simple trick, it doesn’t.  Put the unpeeled squash in a bowl or a saucepan (cut the squash in two if you don’t have a bowl / pan big enough to cover the whole thing).  Save washing up by using a pan you will be cooking in.

Cover it as much as you can with boiling water and let it stand for a couple of minutes.  If you can’t cover the whole piece of squash, just turn it round carefully in the water while it sits, so that most parts get a fair go in the water,

Drain it, let it get cool enough to handle, and now even a blunt peeler will glide through the skin!

It’s harder for the bivvy brigade, or campers with very limited facilities, to use this trick, but many even of them will have a kettle, a saucepan and a peeler.  And if you’re really roughing it, the water you used to soften the butternut squash might even do as hot water to wash up as you go!

And of course this tip is golden (like butternut squash) for making life easier back home.

Happy quick and easy cooking and – bon appétit!

Anna