Butternut and kale mash

The 'holiday fever' has got to me again this year. Christmas really is my favourite time of the year, and the snow that has fallen last week definitely helped me to get into my holiday mood.
I put up my Christmas tree (which was even smaller than I remembered.. but it's a tree, and it looks festive, so it's ok) and I decorated my home with a big star and a long string of lights. I even got some Christmas presents from my overseas penpals and some cards already!
Since I'm celebrating Christmas at my parents' home this year, my mom and me will do the cooking together. There will be two dinners; the first one for my grandparents, the second one just for us. (in the Netherlands, there are two official days of Christmas; December 25th and 26th)
Of course we've already started planning both dinners, and they're going to be delicious!
Did I mention I love Christmas yet?

These days I also feel like cooking somewhat more wintry meals. Kale is the perfect vegetable to do so, and since I didn't think I could keep mine fresh much longer, I decided to use it today. I also had a small butternut and hoped it would combine well with kale and luckily it did.
I served it with a simple oven-baked salmon fillet, sprinkled with some lemon juice and fish spices.

Butternut and kale mash (serves 2)
- 1 small butternut squash
- 1 big bunch of kale (approx. 10 branches)
- 1 red onion
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger
- handful of raisins
- handful of walnut pieces
- coconut oil, for frying

1. Peel butternut with a vegetable peeler, remove seeds and cut into chunks. In the mean time, boil some water in a steaming pan.
2. Steam butternut chunks until cooked, for about 10 - 12 minutes.
3. Put coconut milk, cinnamon, ginger and butternut in a bowl and puree.
4. Cut the kale leaves from the thick stems, discard stems and chop the leaves into smaller pieces. Finely chop the red onion.
5. Heat some coconut oil in a wok or frying pan and fry the onion until soft.
6. Add kale and stir-fry until the kale is dark green and tender.
7. Reduce heat to low and add butternut puree and raisins, stir until well-combined.
8. Serve warm, with walnut pieces on top.

While listening to Christmas songs, doing the dishes wasn't even that bad. And as I often do; I put one serving in my freezer so all I need to do next time is defrost it and pop in into the oven for an easy meal.
Tomorrow I'm going out to dinner with my colleagues, so I won't be doing much cooking. I love cooking, but being able to sit down and get a meal served in front of you is a real pleasure every now and then.