Pumpkin Salad

You may think December is a bit late to share a winter squash recipe, but you’d be wrong! (Technically it’s not yet winter, anyway.) It’s excellent right through until spring as it stores so well, and I still have about a dozen that I grew in my small garden this season. They’ll be cheap and easily available for at least a couple of months yet.

This is a warm autumn pumpkin salad with roasted pumpkin, root vegetables, seeds, and a creamy tahini dressing over greens. I make this salad through autumn and into winter – it’s both fresh and comforting, a tricky balance. The dressing is incredible and combines perfectly with the earthy, sweet vegetables and herbs.

Try this as a side over the upcoming holidays, or as a light lunch or dinner any day of the week. It’s just filling enough as is for a light meal, especially served with bread, but you can make some protein-rich additions if you’d like.

If you don’t have any of Nina’s books, I highly recommend them! One hit after another, she now has four books released, and they are all excellent.

Scroll to the bottom of the post or click “skip to recipe” above to see the recipe card with full ingredient measurements and instructions.

Ingredients

Method

Preheat your oven to 200C (400F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Peel the pumpkin if necessary and cut into bite-sized pieces. Place the pumpkin, beets, onions, and radishes onto the other prepared baking sheet. Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables and add the salt, thyme, sage, and tarragon.

Roast for about 25 minutes, or until the pumpkin and beets are soft. Watch carefully for the last five minutes as you don’t want the vegetables to be too soft.

While the vegetables are roasting, make the vinaigrette.

Place the roasted vegetables into a large bowl and fold in the greens. Top with the seeds and serve with the tahini dressing.

Tips and Notes

For a higher protein meal, mix in some chickpeas (roasted or raw) or serve with quinoa. It makes a wonderful side dish in the autumn and winter months but can also be a nice light meal.

Make extra vinaigrette and keep it in the refrigerator for up to a week – it’s great with any roasted vegetables, as a salad dressing, or with wraps and sandwiches. I love it with a simple tray bake of carrots and/or pumpkin, potatoes, and chickpeas.

For leftovers, keep the roasted vegetables in a container and add them to the greens immediately before serving, then top with the vinaigrette. With really hardy greens like kale it’s okay to store for a day or two mixed up, but generally keeping them separate makes for a better leftover meal.

Substitutions

The original recipe calls for hemp seeds and for the pumpkin seeds to be roasted to add to the salad. I skipped that step this time but have kept it in the recipe card if you’d like to include them. Since hemp is so pricey here (though Nina also lives in the Netherlands) I usually use sunflower seeds.

Use spinach, hardier greens like mâche lettuce, chard, or kale for the base of the salad.

Nina uses a butternut squash but I typically go for hokkaido – it doesn’t need to be peeled, which is great, and I grow it in my garden with good success. Any kind of sweet winter squash can be used, even delicata.

More Winter Squash Recipes

Vegan Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese
Chickpea Pumpkin Curry
Moroccan Roasted Vegetable Salad
Vegan Pumpkin and Mushroom Shepherd’s Pie
Pumpkin Oatmeal Muffins

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This recipe is lightly adapted from Bowls of Goodness: Vibrant Vegetarian Recipes Full of Nourishment. Copyright © 2017 Nina Olsson. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Edel Germany GmBH and translated into english.