Roasted squash salad

Roasted squash salad with rocket and pine nuts

Winter is here and squashes have been in abundance! Make the most of the last few weeks of having a brilliant variety of squash with this tasty (but somewhat time-consuming to prepare, I must admit) warm salad.

To save a bit of time you could roast the red pepper with the squash and courgette instead of grilling, but I prefer the taste of grilled peppers and this slightly different flavour adds a little extra something. As with most of my recipes the cheese is an optional extra if you’re feeling cheeky!

I’ve put this in the low-carb section as I usually need to inject a couple of units of insulin to cover the squash and the hummus.

Ingredients

  • 1 red pepper
  • A variety of squashes, eg. ½ a small butternut squash, ½ a tiger squash, 2 small patty pan squashes
  • 1 large courgette or 4 baby courgettes
  • 1 red onion
  • 2 large cloves of garlic
  • A handful of cherry toms, washed
  • Pine nuts (or Walnuts)
  • 1 teaspoon of Mustard powder
  • A handful of thyme
  • Tiny portion of Feta cheese (optional)
  • Rocket and spinach leaves
  • ½ an avocado, cut into chunks
  • A small handful of kalamata olives, de-seeded and cut in half
  • Red pepper hummus (optional)

Salad dressing

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  • Juice of 1/2 a lemon
  • Pepper

Method

  1. Preheat the grill and, once hot, place the pepper underneath for 10-15 minutes, or until the skin turns black. Turn it every so often so the whole pepper gets cooked. Once grilled, pop it in a bowl, cover with cling film and leave to one side.
  2. Preheat the oven to 200 / 180 (fan) / Gas mark 6. De-seed the squash and cut into similarly sized pieces around 1″ long then slice the courgette into thick strips about 2″ long and 2 cm wide, or if using baby squash quarter these length ways. Peel and halve the onion then cut into thickish slices, just under 1cm wide.
  3. Place the veg in a large roasting pan and pour over a glug of olive oil. Add the thyme, season with black pepper and sprinkle over the mustard powder and give it all a good stir so it’s coated. Then pop the tray in the oven for about 45 mins.
  4. In a salad bowl pour the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice. Mix together to combine and season with black pepper.
  5. 15 minutes before the veg are due to come out the oven, add the cherry tomatoes and garlic to the squash and courgette tray.
  6. In a frying pan, lightly toast the pine nuts on a moderate heat for around 5 minutes.
  7. Uncover the red pepper and peel off the skin. Remove the top and de-seed it, then slice into 1 cm wide strips.
  8. Add the salad leaves, avocado and olives to the salad dressing and give them a good toss so they’re coated. Then lay a bed of salad, avo and olives on two plates.
  9. When all the veg are roasted, heap a generous spoonful on each salad bed, along with the red pepper slices.
  10. Finally, crumble some feta cheese and a sprinkle of pine nuts or chopped walnuts over the top and season with pepper. Serve with a dollop of red pepper hummus – a delicious accompaniment to the roasted squash.

 

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