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Squash, goats cheese and cranberry Wellington

Roast squash, dark sticky onions, lentils, goats cheese and cranberries rolled in puff pastry. Two Wellingtons, each for 4. Make it on your cook day and freeze it, ready for Christmas Day.

Plan my cook day
Squash, goats cheese and cranberry Wellington

Can you freeze squash, goats cheese and cranberry Wellington?

Yes, before its final cook. Freeze it in portions, one to each container.

How to freeze and defrost it, with the Food Standards Agency’s advice at each step.

The recipe

One batch makes 8 portions.

Ingredients for 8 portions

Method

Prep

  1. Heat the oven to 200°C fan.
  2. Peel butternut squash, scoop out the seeds and cut it into 2cm cubes.
  3. Peel onions, halve them and slice thinly.
  4. Peel and crush garlic clove.
  5. Pick the leaves from sprig of fresh sage and chop them.

Roast the squash and cook the onions

  1. Toss the squash with olive oil and salt in your biggest roasting tray. Roast for 30 minutes until soft and browned at the edges.
  2. While the squash roasts, heat olive oil in your biggest frying pan over a medium heat. Fry the onions for 25 minutes, stirring often, until soft and dark golden.
  3. Stir in the garlic, the sage, light brown soft sugar and balsamic vinegar. Cook for 2 minutes until sticky, then take the pan off the heat.
  4. Whizz white bread into crumbs in a food processor, or grate it.

Make the filling

  1. Tip the onions and the squash into a big bowl with the breadcrumbs, pre-cooked puy lentils, chopped hazelnuts, dried cranberries and black pepper. Mix, squashing some of the squash as you go.
  2. Leave to cool for 20 minutes. It needs to be cold before it meets the pastry.
  3. While it cools, beat medium egg in a cup and crumble goats cheese.
  4. Fold the goats cheese through the filling.

Roll the Wellingtons

  1. Unroll one sheet of puff pastry on its paper. Pile half the filling down the middle in a fat log, leaving 4cm clear at each end.
  2. Brush the edges with egg. Fold the long sides over the filling so they overlap, press to seal and tuck in the ends.
  3. Roll it over so the join is underneath. Make the second one the same way.
  4. Brush both all over with egg and score a criss-cross on top with the back of a knife.

To eat now

  1. Bake on a lined tray for 40 minutes until deep golden.
  2. Rest for 10 minutes, then cut into thick slices.

How to freeze

  1. cool any warm dishes before putting them in your freezer, says the Food Standards Agency.
  2. Put the lid on the container.

How to defrost

  1. the safest way to defrost food is in the fridge overnight, says the Food Standards Agency.
  2. Take the lid off.
  3. Heat it in the oven until it’s steaming hot all the way through and golden.
  4. it is important that food is cooked to steaming hot throughout, rather than warmed, says the Food Standards Agency.
  5. Rest for 10 minutes, then cut into thick slices.

How we’d cook it, not advice. We don’t check recipes for allergens, and ingredients vary by brand, so check the label on everything you use. Prepare and cook food the way the Food Standards Agency says. Allergens and food safety

Nutrition

Per portion
Energy
738 kcal
Fat
38.1g
Carbohydrate
74.6g
Protein
21.3g
Nutrition details
Energy
738 kcal
Fat
38.1g
of which saturates
14g
Carbohydrate
74.6g
of which sugars
20.2g
Fibre
12.1g
Protein
21.3g
Salt
2.86g

Estimated from ingredient data (97% of ingredients included).

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For Christmas Day

  • Serve it with Roast potatoes, sprouts and the gravy.
  • 1 Wellington feeds 4 One batch makes 8 portions.
  • Vegetarian Contains nuts. Some cheeses are made with animal rennet, so check the goats cheese says vegetarian.

No special kit

  • Works best in a foil tray with a lid Any freezer-safe container does the job too.
  • Everything from one shop Batch cook it with Nomstash and the foil trays with lids go on the same shopping list as the food.

Cook what you already cook

  • Already keep a freezer spreadsheet?

    Paste it in from Excel or Google Sheets, or choose a CSV file, and Nomstash reads it into your stash.

    Bring in my freezer list

Freezing and defrosting safely

The Food Standards Agency’s advice, in their words.

  • Label everything you freeze.

    label food you freeze so you don’t end up with Unidentified Frozen Objects (UFOs)

The rest of the Food Standards Agency’s advice, in their words, is in our freezing and defrosting guide.

Sources

  1. Food Standards Agency How to chill, freeze and defrost food safely gov.uk
  2. Food Standards Agency Cooking your food gov.uk

Last checked . Each quotation on this page was read against the page it links to.

Make it your first batch.

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