Savoury Butternut Squash – Broccoli Muffins With Feta

These are just perfect to make on a rainy afternoon, and eat them all up whilst they are still lovely and warm. I have a very picky toddler and seems like my baby girl is following her big brother’s footsteps. Lucky me. Not. I was hoping that at least one child of mine will eat properly. Nope, I can keep envying other parents with their small children eating raw carrot stick and steamed broccoli, but non mines. Anyway, that is why I try to smuggle some extra healthy ingredients into their dishes and also hoping that they will venture beyond the usual tastes and textures.

Muffins, both sweet and savoury are usually big hits in our house. I normally need to avoid whole pieces of vegetables being visible and use lots of cheese, for the savoury muffins to get green light. This recipe meets both criteria. Also contains more of the “friendly” veggie (butternut squash) and less of the “unfriendly” one (broccoli). Great for snack or even as a lazy main meal with some more cheese or healthy spreads like hummus.

Tip: by adding lots of fresh rosemary instead of chives, these muffins can be turned into more of a grownup’s snack.

Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients:

250g plain flour

100g butternut squash diced

80g broccoli (4-5 small florets)

1,5 tsp bicarbonate soda

1 tsp baking powder

200ml milk

50g butter melted

100g feta cheese crumbled roughly

1 egg

half a tsp salt

1 tbsp of chopped chives

some grated cheddar to sprinkle on the top (optional)

Method:

Steam the vegetables until they’re tender. With a hand mixer, blend the butternut squash into a smooth paste. I guess it could work with just mashing it with a fork. As a smooth paste, it adds some extra liquid to your batter (so does the broccoli). After this, I normally just add everything one by one in no particular order and just mix it quickly (with a wooden spoon, by hand).

Preheat oven to 160C. I found that because of vegetables, they bake a bit slower than without them, but they can burn just as easily. Therefore, it’s better to keep it around 160C instead of 180C. So the baking time is slightly longer than with normal muffins: 12-14 minutes.

They are lovely warm or cold, or even reheated in the oven.