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Roasted Butternut Squash Salad

Written by Natalie Hoch

A roasted butternut squash goat cheese salad with crunchy pepitas and cider vinaigrette makes a warm, autumn-inspired meal.

Here in Brooklyn, the weather’s chilly, the leaves are changing, and the farmers’ market is in full fall mode, inspiring many delightful combinations.

So why not have a salad to celebrate the fall season? This roasted butternut squash salad is a way to bring the colors and flavors of autumn to the table.

plate of salad with roasted butternut squash, goat cheese, cherries, and pepitas
Photo: Casey Barber

Salad has always been my all-time favorite, to the ridicule, shock, and enjoyment of friends and family. I love all foods, but something about salad really does it for me.

Anyone who knows me longer than a day knows about my salad obsession—and at this point anyone I love, even a little bit, has had one of my salads.

It will always be my assignment for any potluck I attend, and this suits me just fine.

As long as I can remember, my mother has recounted endless evenings around the dinner table when I passed on dessert for more salad. No joke. A five year old skipping the brownie for more iceberg and mustard vinaigrette.

plate of salad with roasted butternut squash, goat cheese, cherries, and pepitas
Photo: Casey Barber

Our family followed my Dad’s Swiss family tradition of having salad at the end of the meal and I ritualistically gobbled up the last bits of dressed lettuce as the plates were cleared.

This obsession continued, even blossomed, during my college years when I had free reign of my own fridge for the first time.

My roommates will attest that I was often found chopping veggies and whisking up vinaigrettes drunk at 2:00 am while everyone else wolfed down mac and cheese.

I’ve even been known to crave a crisp, ranch-smothered salad to ease the pain of a particularly vicious hangover. It’s weird, I know.

plate of salad with roasted butternut squash, goat cheese, cherries, and pepitas
Photo: Casey Barber

Don’t be Stingy with the Vinegar

I think it all boils down to my longstanding, unwavering, and at times unhealthy love affair with vinegar.

I can’t get enough of the stuff–cider, red wine, sherry, balsamic, you name it (although my “death row” salad would be tossed in a good red wine vin).

As a kid, I used to bribe my grandmother into spoon-feeding me the stuff when mom and dad weren’t looking.

plate of salad with roasted butternut squash, goat cheese, cherries, and pepitas
Photo: Casey Barber

And as a grown woman, I regularly solicit the stern scolding of my husband when I serve myself an overly vinegared salad, as it almost always ends up in a brief but brutal tummyache.

Beyond the vinegar, though, I love the endless options of salads. So many variations—each so different from the next.

They can be comforting, light, hearty, satisfying, refreshing, or indulgent. Entrée, appetizer, side, or even dessert.

plate of salad with roasted butternut squash, goat cheese, cherries, and pepitas

Versatile Ways to Make Squash Salad

While I call this a roasted butternut squash salad, you can substitute any hard-skinned winter squash in this recipe with the same excellent results.

Acorn, kabocha, honeynut, or delicata squash will all give you the same autumnal thrills.

Similarly, you can use any tender greens you like to complement the roasted butternut squash, Try baby kale, arugula, spinach, or a combination to suit your tastes.

plate of salad with roasted butternut squash, goat cheese, cherries, and pepitas

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad

Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Roasted butternut squash salad with goat cheese, crunchy pepitas and cider vinaigrette makes an autumn-inspired meal. Use pre-cubed squash to cut down on prep time for this hearty main dish salad.

Ingredients

Roasted Butternut Squash

  • 1 small butternut squash (about 1 to 1 1/2 pounds) or 1 pound diced butternut squash
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 pinch ground black pepper

Dressing

  • 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon smooth Dijon mustard
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Salad

  • 1 5-ounce package of baby field greens or other salad greens
  • 1/4 cup dried cherries
  • 2 ounces (half a 4-ounce log) plain goat cheese
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
  • 3 heaping tablespoons roasted pepitas

Instructions

Roast the squash:

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a rimmed sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone liner.
  2. If using a whole butternut squash, slice the squash in half horizontally where the bulbous root end meets the slimmer stem end.
  3. Peel the tough skin off each piece of squash with a vegetable peeler or paring knife, then slice the stem and root ends off each respective piece.
  4. Slice each piece in half vertically and spoon out the seeds.
  5. Dice into 1-inch cubes.
  6. If using pre-diced squash, cut any larger pieces into smaller 1-inch cubes.
  7. Toss the squash with olive oil, salt, and pepper, then spread in a single layer on the sheet pan.
  8. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until tender and caramelized.

While the squash roasts, make the dressing:

  1. In a small bowl, whisk the vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper together to emulsify.
  2. Once well blended (and only once well blended!), slowly pour in the olive oil while whisking constantly.

Assemble the salad:

  1. Wash and dry the greens and put in your favorite salad bowl.
  2. Roughly chop the cherries and sprinkle on the greens.
  3. Crumble the goat cheese into pieces and sprinkle over the salad.
  4. Once the squash is partially cooled, sprinkle with coarse sea salt and add to the salad.
  5. Finally, toss the pepitas and dressing with the salad.

Notes

As you'll note, I tend to make my vinaigrettes more of a 1 to 1 ratio, even a bit heavier on the vinegar. I find it adds more flavor and punch. Most vinaigrette recipes will call for 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil (that tends to be a bit too bland and oily for me). However, if you're not a vinegar nut, change ratio as necessary.

Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 262Total Fat: 20gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 7mgSodium: 577mgCarbohydrates: 18gFiber: 4gSugar: 8gProtein: 6g

The nutritional information above is computer-generated and only an estimate.

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7 Comments

  1. Recipe and your confessions of being a salad-a-holic are mouth-watering. I would have to substitute blue cheese or feta for the goat cheese.

    Becky, the magical ingredients in that Hoch vinaigrette are Spice Island Beau Monde and Maggi seasoning.

  2. Having lived with Natalie for several years, I will not only vouch for her amazing salads and vinaigrettes, but I can also most certainly attest to the drunken late night chopping.

  3. I’m glad you mentioned eating salad at the end of a meal. (Europeans are obsessed with digestion.)My family has always done it that way and I was confused straight through early adulthood each time I went to a wedding or event where they served the salad first.

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