Here in the UborkaChef kitchen tonight we have four contestants facing up to the butternut squash challenge: to make an interesting and tasty meal using butternut squash as the main ingredient, and to come up with a matching cocktail. Cooking doesn’t get tougher than this!

Lisa has indeed told me a million times what to do with a butternut squash. She is my go-to person for whatever random thing I feel like cooking, and has provided superb suggestions for pork chops and savoy cabbage, sausage and lentil casserole, and a spicy chicken dish that she nicked from Nigel. I must confess that her recipe suggestion for butternut squash is currently in the oven at Casa Uborka, which inevitably makes her the winner of the round, for which she does of course deserve champagne.

Having said that, asta‘s butternut squash crisps are an interesting and original idea, and we do like that creativity but can’t be arsed to make them. So more champagne is due right here.

Lyle has combined both elements of the challenge and come up with something that sounds quite revolting, and is therefore perfectly suited to his general style. I think we can happily let him have all the butternut cocktail to himself.

Finally – hey, Pete: hope it tastes as good as it looks ;);)