Herby Roast Turkey Breast with Apples, Red Onions & Squash, by Gill Meller

Not all of us are after an extravagant affair when it comes to our festive roast bird. Perhaps there's a planned meeting with friends and family ahead of the big day, a pre-Christmas feast if you will, or you may even be one of our gang from overseas who celebrates the joyous event that is Thanksgiving. Nevertheless, Turkey cookery doesn't always have to be an arduous task, and can be treated much like many other roast meat meals.

Our brilliant friend, chef and award-winning food writer, Gill Meller has crafted this gorgeous recipe that allows autumns seasonal abundance to sing. He's paired gorgeous gluts of apples with sweet and piquant squash to create a hearty vegetable accompaniment for our slowly-grown, roast turkey breast. It's incredibly simple to make and leaves you more time to entertain, instead of slaving over the stove - always a win!

Ingredients

1.5kg

Properly Free Range Turkey Breast
20g

Grass Fed butter, softened
4-5 sprigs

Thyme, leaves stripped
1

Large squash (we like Butternut or Crown Prince)
3-4

Apples (we like Bramley)
2

Red onions
1

Lemon, zest and juice
A handful

Sage leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons

Olive oil
A good pinch

Pure sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

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Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180C Fan/Gas Mark 6
Place the turkey in the middle of a large flat baking tray. Dot the soft butter over the joint, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle over the thyme leaves. Place in the centre of the hot oven and cook for about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile split the squash, deseed it and cut it into chunky wedges. Peel and half the onions then cut each half into 3 wedges. Quarter and core the apples then half the quarters. Place the apples in a bowl with the lemon juice and zest, half the sage, which you’ve roughly chopped, some salt and pepper and 1 tablesoon of olive oil. Add the onions to the apples and tumble together.
After the turkey’s had its initial time in the oven take it out and arrange the pieces of squash around it. Scatter over the apples and onions and the remaining sage leaves. Trickle the veg with the remaining olive oil and season all over with salt and pepper.
Return the tray to the oven for a further 25 to 30 minutes or until the turkey breast is cooked through and the squash, apples and onions are soft.
Allow everything to rest for 10 minutes before serving.
You could serve with lashings of homemade gravy and some sage and onion sausagemeat stuffing on the side.