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Christmas Unwrapped Festive Food & Drink


Promotional Content • Saturday 15th November 2025


Sizzling showstopper


Tired of turkey taking centre stage in festive spreads? This vegetable delight is bound to impress. Words: Lena-Marie Müller


spuds. Helen Graham, the trailblazing chef who co-founded plant-based restaurant group Bubala, grew up with a vegetarian brother and remembers her mum always making “something vegetarian on Christmas Day”. Helen remains a champion of


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vegetables as a centrepiece. “Its texture is like fudge,” she says of butternut squash — the star ingredient of our featured recipe. “I’m not trying to convert anyone,”


she adds. “I just want to show that vegetables can get the same treatment and attention.”


Butternut squash with saffron-tamarind butter and feta


Ingredients • 1 butternut squash • 2 tbsp olive oil • ½ tsp salt


IMPRESS YOUR GUESTS/HELEN GRAHAM


For the saffron tamarind butter: • 100g salted butter • 1 pinch saff ron


hh, the festive season — when guilt takes a back seat to gravy, second helpings and golden roast


• 1 red bird’s eye chilli, fi nely sliced • 40g tamarind paste • 20g date syrup • 35ml lime juice • 100g feta • 40g walnuts • Handful of mint, roughly torn


Method 1 Preheat oven to 180C fan. 2 Cut the squash into eight even chunks and discard the seeds.


3 Toss with olive oil and salt on a lined baking tray.


4 Roast for 50 minutes. 5 Meanwhile, melt butter with saff ron and chilli over a low heat for 4-5 minutes until gently bubbling.


6 In a heatproof bowl, whisk together tamarind paste and date syrup.


7 Slowly pour in the saff ron butter, whisking continuously.


8 Whisk in lime juice and salt. 9 Arrange roasted squash on a serving dish.


10 Drizzle with the saff ron-tamarind butter and top with crumbled feta, chopped walnuts and torn mint.


Helen’s debut cookbook, Centrepiece, is published on 9 April 2026.


sentiaspirits.com


CELEBRATE THE SEASON WITH ALCOHOL-FREE YOU CAN FEEL


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