Monday, November 3, 2014

Fall salad with Roasted Butternut Squash, Feta, Dried Cranberries and other goodies of the fall

Fall Salad with Roasted Butternut Squash, Feta, Dried Cranberries, Pumpkin seeds, Yellow Tomatoes and Cucumbers. 

There. I think those are all the ingredients! 

A little tip for those people who are always in a rush and can't cook two days in a row: if you're making one salad, it takes very little effort to make two of them. Leave the cheese and the seeds out or put them in a separate container, and put the salad dressing on right before you eat it. You can put it in tupperware and leave it in the fridge for about a day and a half. 
I do this all the time, the vegetables won't spoil and it will make you so happy to see that you have a nice healthy meal waiting for you in the fridge! 




 Ingredients*: 

For two salads:
Half a butternut squash**.
10 yellow cherry tomatoes
1/2 cucumber
a handful of colorful dried cranberries
a generous block of your favorite feta cheese
seasonal organically grown greens
pumpkin seeds, toasted, unsalted

FOR THE VINAIGRETTE: Oil and lemon. No salt. The feta is usually salty enough, but if yours is not feel free to add some sea salt.

STEP BY STEP: 

1. Cut the butternut squash as best as you can leaving the skin on. You can even just cut it in half. If you're lazy you can buy the pre-cut one. 

2. Turn the oven on 375 F or 200 C and bake the squash till you can squish down the pulp with a fork (about 20 minutes)

3. Now the skin will peal right off! 

4. While the squash cooks prepare the rest. Put the salad (washed and dried) at the bottom of the bowl, cut the yellow cherry tomatoes in half, slice the cucumber in thin slices. Cut the butternut squash in cubes and add it to the salad. 

5. Crumble the feta cheese with your hands (which we have throughly washed, right?), and add the dried fruit and seeds. 

6. Prepare the vinaigrette in a separate small bowl with 1 and 1/2 tbsp of olive oil and a tsp of lemon juice per salad. Whisk the two together with a fork and pour on top of the salad. 

7. Stir the salad before eating. 

Enjoy!!! 

Valentina
RealItalianKitchen


*About the ingredients: these are all things that are still in season in the area I live in. Feel free to substitute any of these for whatever is in season in your area.  
**About the butternut squash: I usually bake the whole thing, and then keep it in the fridge for all my squash needs of the week. When I made my salad the squash was cold and it was very firm and easy to cut. Perfect and delicious for the fall salad. When is still warm I usually make soup with it.  Clic here to learn how to make home made Ravioli with squash from scratch! 


No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.