Warm Christmas Rice Salad with Butternut Squash and Pomegranate Seeds

With sweet squash, salty feta, crunchy pistachios and fruity pomegranate seeds, this Warm Christmas Rice Salad is a real crowd-pleaser. It's quick and easy to make too - perfect for festive entertaining. Plus the leftovers make an envy-inducing paced lunch the next day! (Serves 4 to 8, depending on whether this is served as a main course or side dish.)

📝 Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 500 g butternut squash (roughly half a large butternut squash) (peeled and chopped into 1cm / 1/2inch cubes)
• Salt and pepper
• 300 g mix of wild and long grain rice
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil ((or just regular olive oil if you don’t have extra virgin))
• Juice of half a lemon
• 2 tablespoons mint (chopped)
• 100 g pomegranate seeds
• 50 g pistachio kernels
• 100 g feta (crumbled)

👨‍🍳 Instructions

1. 1Preheat your oven to 220C / 200C fan / gas mark 7 / 425F.
2. 2Drizzle a roasting tray with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Put the butternut squash cubes into the roasting tray and turn in the oil. Make sure the butternut squash is spread out in 1 layer. Add a little salt and pepper to taste. Put the butternut squash in the oven for about 20 minutes until soft.
3. 3Meanwhile cook the rice according to packet instructions and then drain the rice thoroughly.
4. 4When the squash and rice are ready, tip the rice into the squash tray. (Be sure the rice is thoroughly drained before you do this.) Squeeze the lemon juice into the tray and add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil (about 1 tablespoon).
5. 5Add roughly half the chopped mint, pomegranate seeds, pistachio kernels and crumbled feta and mix everything together. Turn out onto a serving platter and scatter with the remaining mint, seeds, pistachios and feta.