Butternut Squash Salad
This butternut squash salad is perfect for fall. Packed full of fresh cooked butternut squash, goat cheese, arugula and pomegranate seeds.
Did everyone have a great Thanksgiving? I know I totally stuffed my face…what about you? I cannot begin to tell you how much I love Thanksgiving. It’s the only holiday where you can pile food on your plate and no one will judge you. In fact, people look at you crazy if you don’t have seconds! This is my kind of holiday.
However, the holiday is now over and I have to go right back to “eating in moderation.” This is where this salad come in handy. It’s packed full of flavor and pretty good for you! Now, I’m no doctor but I think this salad is pretty packed full of nutrients. Plus I could gladly eat this almost any day of the week. The only part of the salad I dread is the cutting up the squash. Those damn squash freak me out. I’m sure I’m going to lose a finger cutting one of them. Does anyone else have that fear? Is there some magic tip to making cutting butternut squash not so scary? If so, can you please share it?
Oh, and I drizzled this salad with a little pomegranate vinaigrette because it’s awfully tasty and one of my favorite dressings. Definitely give it a try!
Butternut Squash Salad
This butternut squash salad is perfect for fall. Packed full of fresh cooked butternut squash, goat cheese, arugula and pomegranate seeds.
Yield: 1 large salad
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
For salad:
- 4 cups arugula
- 1/2 cup diced butternut squash
- 1/3 cup pomegranate seeds
- 1/2 small red onion - sliced
- 1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
For pomegranate vinaigrette:
- 2 equal parts POM Pomegranate Juice Concentrate
- 1 equal part olive oil
- 1 equal part champagne vinegar
- Fresh cracked pepper – to taste
- Kosher salt – pinch
Directions:
For salad:
In a large bowl add arugula and set aside while you prepare the butternut squash.
Take fresh diced butternut squash and add to a small pot and cover just slightly with water. Boil for about 5 minutes until fork tender. Drain.
In a small skillet add a drizzle of olive oil and let it heat up over medium heat. Once hot, add softened butternut squash and give it a quick sear, about 5 minutes.
Top arugula with butternut squash, pomegranate seeds, red onion and goat cheese. Drizzle with vinaigrette.
For pomegranate vinaigrette:
Whisk ingredients together and pour over salad. Can also be stored in the refrigerator until ready to be used.
This looks incredible! I esp love the pom arils!
Brandy replied: — November 27th, 2012 @ 1:47 pm
Thank you! I’m so in love with pomegranate this year!
This is almost too pretty to eat!!
Oh my goodness the flavors and color combinations here are glorious!
This is not only gorgeous but totally delicious!! I wish I had it for lunch today – yum!
I totally want this salad Brandy. For real girl. Love it. Happy belated Turkey day to you. Love ya!!
~heather
ooo i have to make this. I am in an autumn salad rut
omggg I am SO glad you posted this… I’ve been waiting on this since I saw the picture of this bad boy… can’t wait to make it!!
With this salad in my life, I’m pretty sure I’d never crave anythign unhealthy again! Okay well that’s probably an exaggeration…but my cravings would be MUCH less frequent!
Hi! Do you have a Trader Joe’s by you?? If yes, they have a pretty big bag of butternut squash pre-cut into little cubes. It’s totally worth the money! I’m actually doing a post about butternut squash tomorrow and I LOVE the time (and fingers) I saved by not having to peel and dice butternut squash. This salad looks beautiful!
I have been trying to include more salads lately and i want salad to be more than just lettuce and cheese. This is so yummy full of so much delicious ingredients, color and full of nutrients. After all that feast, its time for this salad. thanks for sharing.
Girl, you had me a pomegranate vinaigrette 🙂 I love mixing roasted squashes with something sweet-acid, I bet thats delicious! Oh, and I’m def with you on the cutting off my hand along with the butternut squash, those things aren’t messing around!
It doesn’t scare me to cut the squash but it’s so time-consuming and annoying. Blah. You can buy precut frozen squash some places but I don’t think frozen would work for this salad. Man it’s calling my name, thank you for sharing this. It’s just beautiful!