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Squash and Turkey Bake

Nigel Slater swaps traditional shepherd’s pie ingredients for turkey and butternut squash, with delicious results.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Butternut squash and turkey work together. They rank in the top 37% of all ingredient pairs, and 3 recipes mention both. Both carry eugenol, which smells clove, spicy. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep30 min
Cook2 hr

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, tree nuts, soy, fish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 190°C (375°F). Peel the butternut squash, remove the seeds and cut the flesh into 2 cm (3/4 inch) chunks. Toss with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, spread on a baking tray and roast for 40 minutes, turning once.

  2. Meanwhile, finely chop the onion and garlic, slice the mushrooms, and strip the thyme leaves from the sprigs.

  3. Heat a little olive oil in a large deep frying pan over medium heat. Cook the onion for 8 minutes until soft, then add the garlic and mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes more.

  4. Add the minced turkey and break it up with a spoon. Cook for about 8 minutes, stirring, until no pink remains and it reaches 165°F (74°C) in the thickest part.

  5. Sprinkle the flour over the turkey and stir for 1 minute. Add the red wine, thyme leaves, Worcestershire sauce and finely grated orange zest. Simmer gently for 15 to 20 minutes until thickened. Season with salt and pepper.

  6. Spoon the turkey mixture into a baking dish and arrange the roasted squash on top. Dot with the butter and bake at 190°C (375°F) for 30 to 35 minutes until bubbling and golden on top.

  7. Let the bake stand for 5 minutes before serving.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butternut squash + turkeytop 37% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Butternut squash + chestnuttop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together17 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Olive + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,641 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the butternut squash

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, onion, garlic, chestnut, mushroom, thyme, turkey):

  1. Lemonabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Butternut squashthe original
  3. Cherryabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Orangeabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, onion, garlic, chestnut, mushroom, thyme, turkey. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).