Roasted butternut squash & red onion with tahini & za'atar (p. 36)

I've been meaning to make this for ages; there's been this squash sitting on the counter making me feel guilty.  And this one I hadn't made before.

Unfortunately, I'm still failing to have the right spices.  See, I really thought I had some za'atar in my pantry, and I can't find it.  But za'atar is basically thyme and oregano and sesame seeds, plus sumac, so I substituted all of the non-sumac bits. *sigh*

We used this as a side dish to the end of a chicken I roasted following another famous London cookbook chef: Jamie Oliver's chicken with milk sauce, which is odd, but good.

All told, the squash salad is a good one: the strength of the lemon cuts through the richness of the tahini, and the roasted onions give it a pleasant colour and more complexity of flavour.  I added chickpeas to the salad (largely because of  this, yet a third, British recipe for much the same salad but with raw onion and with chickpeas), and I think it made for a better side dish.

This was good--I'd say it lacked oomph, but, um, I didn't have zaatar.  I'm going to the convenience store / Middle Eastern grocery by the bus terminal now.  *sigh*