Hilary's pumpkin, feta and spinach salad (from Flip Grater)

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Hilary's pumpkin, feta and spinach salad (from Flip Grater)

Flip Grater is a Christchurch singer-songwriter who, in late 2006, took to the road to promote her album Cage For A Song.

On the trip she picked up vegetarian recipes which she has now put into a book/tour diary.

I'll let Flip tell you her story about this one . . .

"About half an hour out of Raglan I spotted a man in an old-fashioned black suit walking with his thumb out. He was wearing a bowler hat and carrying a small mandolin case.

"I quickly braked and made some room on the passenger seat. His name was Rich and he was a Raglan local who had just been down south performing at the Dunedin Fringe Festival, which I also played at -- although his act was probably more in keeping with the festival.

"Rich made masks and puppets and performed an experimental puppet show. I explained what I was doing in Raglan and received the excited reply that he and some friends were planning to come to my show.

"He offered me a mattress at his place for the night and I accepted eagerly as I hadn't organised any accommodation. We pulled down a narrow lane and crept along to a beachy cottage he shared with a flatmate, Hilary, and her two-year-old son.

"Hilary was a colourful, easy-going hippie who said she had recently moved to Raglan to escape societal judgement over her young, single-mother status. She explained that her son was with his father on the weekends so she could finish her photography degree by correspondence and I was welcome to her son's bedroom for the night."

And this is what Hilary cooked up . . .

INGREDIENTS

1/4 Pumpkin, cooked and mashed

1 block feta crumbled

Bunch chopped spinach

2 cloves garlic crushed

1 medium onion finely chopped

Grated parmesan

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 Tbsp basil pesto

1 can tomato paste or some other form of tomatoey goodness

Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

Cook onion and garlic in oil until soft then stir in all the other ingredients. Serve with pasta of your chosing.

And raise a glass to the hospitality of Raglanders.

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