Butternut Squash and Pomegranate Salad is quite possibly my newest fave salad. This speaks highly of this salad since I LOVE salads.
So the other day were doing our usual spend entire paycheck grocery shopping at Whole Foods and it was right before lunch and I was STARVING. I walked by the deli to see what they had, perused the salad bar, checked out what soups were on etc. And I spied this salad in the case. Butternut squash and pomegranate salad. The lady working there asked if I wanted a sample. Well duh, of COURSE I do. I love samples
After I had the sample and thought it was really really good I looked at the ingredients and realized I had all the ingredients at home. So while the deli lady wasn't looking I oh so not so slyly snapped a pic of it so I could get all the ingredients to try to figure it out. Whatever would we do without camera phones? Probably what we did before we had them, which I can't remember what that is. or was. Whatever. This salad was good and I wanted to go home and try to recreate it
I love butternut squash, especially roasted. I adore arugula, I freak out over pomegranate. My kids even love pomegranates now too. A friend of mine showed me THIS the other day via Instagram and I must have one. De-seeding a pomegranate in 60 seconds? Without the bloody pomegranate death that occurs when you try to deseed one by hand, even under water its still messy. Jen said she thought this was well worth the $3 she spent. Or something like that.
Back to the salad
Extreme close up of the butternut squash and pomegranate salad goodness. The feta was really good but I think goat cheese would work well too. I made up the dressing since the ingredients were listed but not amounts and I thought it needed something more than just olive oil lemon and orange juices. So I added a wee bit of white wine vinegar and some pomegranate juice. So glad I did
"Recipe"
Butternut Squash and Pomegranate Salad
Ingredients
- For the Salad
- 2 cups butternut squash cubed and roasted
- 3 cups fresh arugula
- 1 cup pomegranate arils
- ⅔ c chopped walnuts
- ½ c crumbled feta or goat cheese
- 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
- ½ teaspoon Black pepper
- For the Vinaigrette
- ⅔-3/4 c Olive oil
- Zest and juice of one large orange
- Zest and juice of one lemon
- 2 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 2 tablespoon pomegranate juice
- 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary
Instructions
For the salad:
- Combine all in a large bowl, tossing well to mix and make sure that all the pomegranate seeds and walnuts don’t settle to the bottom
For the vinaigrette:
- Combine all in a blender and mix until well emulsified. Drizzle over salad.
Notes
The dressing makes quite a bit so the salad can easily be doubled to accommodate the extra dressing or it would even make a good marinade for chicken or fish.
If you don't buy pre-roasted squash you can easily roast one. Preheat oven to 400 deg f. Peel and chop a medium squash in half, scoop out seeds. Chop into 1" pieces and place on a roasting pan, drizzle with olive or grape seed oil. Coconut oil also works really well. Roast for 30-40 min until starting to turn golden, stirring often. Let cool before adding to salad
Get in my belly. Is that term way over used or out of style now? I never know these things, I am pretty much out of the loop, except I do know one thing, this salad is damn good. This salad is being featured over on the blog Food Done Light for her Thursday Treasures. Head on over there and check out all the other delicious recipes that are featured as well and let them know I sent you!
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