As much as I love pasta, I’ve started to feel like we eat it every other day. Sure, it’s easy, versatile, quick, and can be topped with a virtually limitless selection of things, but still… Time to make a conscious effort to eat more different kinds of carbohydrates. Here’s our first attempt – fajitas – made with wholewheat tortilla wraps.
These were extremely tasty, and quite fun to eat, as everyone got to assemble their own fajita with the fillings they wanted. Kipper had hers just with butternut squash and griddled halloumi, while DH and I added salad leaves and fresh salsa too. DH and I both had second helpings without the tortilla – just stacked the other ingredients to make a yummy warm salad. (I do love a warm salad – here’s another one if you fancy.) If you were looking for a low-carb dinner, you could skip the tortilla wraps altogether and just do it this way from the outset.
I spiced up the butternut squash with cumin and a selection of other herbs and spices, and it was super-tasty. I roasted it first then finished it off in the griddle pan to get the cool-looking scorch lines, but you could simply leave it to cook in the oven for longer, if you’re not so superficial as to care unduly about what it looks like (unlike me). It is, after all, going to be on the inside of a fajita. Hmmm. Anyway, whatever it looks like, it tastes fab, and the leftovers were lovely cold next day, wrapped in another tortilla with a dollop of humous.
The only real downside to this meal is that there’s a fair bit of faffing around to make all the various bits and pieces to go in the fajitas. None of them are particularly tricky, but you do need a modicum of organisation, which is not always present in my kitchen. I think we got away with it this time though. Phew.
Serves 4.
- 1 medium-large butternut squash
- 2 medium onions
- 50ml olive oil
- 0.5 tsp ground cumin
- 0.5 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp oregano
- Pinch cayenne
- Zest of a lime
- 250g halloumi cheese
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
- 100g cherry tomatoes
- 1 medium red pepper
- 1-2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander leaves
- Juice of half a lime
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Salad leaves
- Tortilla wraps
- Preheat the oven to 200C.
- Peel and de-seed the squash, and cut into 1cm wedges. Place in a large baking tray.
- Whisk the cumin, cumin seeds, coriander, oregano, cayenne and lime zest into the olive oil. Pour over the squash and toss to coat.
- Roast at 200C for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cook for 3-4 minutes per side on a hot griddle pan, until cooked through and showing decorative scorch lines. (Alternatively, continue roasting for another 20-30 minutes until soft and browned.)
- Cut the cheese into 1cm slices, and brush all over with the olive oil.
- Cook in a hot griddle pan for 1-2 minutes per side, until the lovely crispy scorched lined appear.
- Cut the tomatoes into small dice.
- Remove the core from the pepper, and cut the 'shell' into small dice.
- Combine the tomatoes and pepper with the coriander and lime, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Put the squash, the halloumi, the salsa, and the salad leaves into serving dishes and arrange on the table. Warm the wraps for a minute or two in a hot oven, if desired, then serve to diners. Encourage everyone to add fillings to their fajita. Roll up and enjoy!
Since the squash is spiced up with both cumin seeds and ground cumin, I’m entering this recipe into The Spice Trail – Cumin challenge, hosted by Vanesther at Bangers & Mash.
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Yes, yes, yes! Love this dish. We get through a lot of wraps and salads in our house and this looks like a great new way to fill them. They look so tasty and healthy too. Just yum! And such a great entry for the Spice Trail challenge. Thanks for taking part 🙂
Thanks Vanesther! I suspect wraps will be featuring more on our dinner menus in future too, these were so much fun and so yummy!