Sunday Salads- Roasted Butternut Squash with Pomegranate and Za'atar

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The Italian in me just wants to make the simplest food. It doesn’t want to be fussy. It doesn’t want spend hours cutting things just so or mixing 25 ingredients into a salad dressing. My Italian side also pretty much just wants to make gnocchi and tomato sauce all day, which, though delicious, would not make for the most interesting blog. Fortunately, I have fallen deeply in love with Middle Eastern food. The rich flavors, the complex spice mixes, the vegetable forward way of eating.  The more I cook like this, the more I realize that the Italian way of eating simple food, not doing too much to it, that totally unfussy way of cooking seems to fit right in.

It’s actually been kind of exciting to me, to try new spices and spice blends and treat them to the ways I’ve always cooked food. This salad is a great example. I love squash, and roasting it up with red onions and tossing it with some greens and nuts in a simple vinaigrette is something that I would always do. But in this Middle Eastern update, I toss the onions in pomegranate molasses before roasting them, and add fresh pomegranate on top. I toss everything together with some salt and lemon and za’atar, an amazing spice blend of oregano, cumin and sesame seeds, that you can buy already blended and ready to go. Then I put a bowl of garlicky yoghurt on the side to dip the salad in.

The result is something so much more complex and rich than I would have ever made before, but is still incredibly simple and easy to do.

Small miracles friends. They do happen.

Squash and Pomegranate Salad with Za’atar

  • 2 small Kombucha or Butternut Squash
  • ¼ Pomegranate
  • 1 Red Onion
  • 2 tbsp Pomegranate Molasses*
  • ½ Lemon
  • 1 tbsp Za’atar
  • Olive Oil
  • Salt and Pepper

For Garlicky Yoghurt:

  • ¾ cup Greek Yoghurt
  • 2 large clove Garlic
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1 tsp Lemon Juice

Preheat your oven to 425F

Peel the squash- butternut squash can be peeled with a peeler, the kombucha squash will need to be done with a knife and some patience. Be careful!

Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Wash the seeds and toss them with some salt and a good glug of olive oil. Put them on a tray and bake for about 20 mintues, stirring every 5 mintues.

Cut the squash into ½ inch wedges and lay them out on a baking tray. Toss with a good glug of olive oil and a healthy pinch of salt. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the squash is fully cooked.

Peel the red onion and cut it in half. Cut into thin strips and toss with salt and the pomegranate molasses. Put them on a baking tray and roast them for about 20 minutes, or until they are soft and a little bit caramelized.

Phew! No more roasting!

Meanwhile make the garlicky yoghurt:

Smash up the garlic as small as you possible can. Mix it with the yoghurt, salt and lemon juice.

When the squash are still warm sqeeze the lemon juice on top and toss to mix. Check your seasoning and add some salt if you need.

Put the squash on a platter. Top with the onions and roasted squash seeds, and break apart the pomegranate and sprinkle the seeds on top.

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Sunday Sides- Roasted Squash with Yoghurt Cilantro Sauce and Pomegranate Molasses

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Hi All, 

I’m just letting you know that for the next couple months I’m going to be changing up my Sunday Salad column to a Sunday Sides column. This is to prep for American Thanksgiving (Sorry Canada) and for Christmas. It will be full of veggie side dishes (and sometimes mains) that will hopefully inspire your holiday tables. I’m also doing it because this time of year begs for hot dishes, and as much as I love salads, and I do, I am craving things warm and cozy. And now to begin!

As sad as I am to see the summer go, and I am, there is something comforting about the fall. The cozy sweaters, the thick socks, the covering up your bad hair day with a cozy hat. I have been doing a lot of this lately, largely in my apartment. Why are you wearing so many layers in your apartment you ask? Because, my apartment is heated through radiators, and my landlord, who is essentially a slumlord, turns off our heating at night. Yes, that is correct. He doesn’t turn down the heat at night (from the very low temperature he keeps it at during the day), he turns it off.  Let it be clear that it’s not like I have thick windows to keep out the draft (they are in fact so thin they rattle aggressively when someone playing music with a loud bass drives by) or I have heated flooring or anything like that. 

Friends, it is a high of 3 degrees celsius today (that’s 37 to you crazy non metric people). It is bloody cold. So cold in fact that I started keeping my oven on with the door open during the day to heat my apartment. 

The things we do for cheap rent. 

So, now that the oven is on 8 hours a day I’ve been roasting everything in sight so I don’t feel so wasteful of energy. Chickens, squash, carrots, apples. Nothing is off limit, as long as I can open the door every half hour or so to keep the temperature of my apartment up. No soufflés here, just straight up roasting. 

One of the things I roasted were these lovely acorn squash. And after they were roasted I spooned on some cilantro yoghurt sauce, and then I drizzled them with some pomegranate molasses.  And they were crazy delicious. I recommend you do the same, weather or not you are heating your living room with your oven 

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Yoghurt Cilantro Sauce

1 cup Greek Yoghurt

1 bunch Cilantro

1tsp Cumin Seeds, ground

1tsp Coriander Seed, ground

2 tbsp Lemon

2 tbsp Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

2 Acorn Squash

1/4 cup Pomegranate Molasses*

Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil

Preheat your oven to 400F

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Peel your acorn squash. It’s a bit tricky to get into the grooves but try to be meticulous. 

Cut them in half and scoop out the seeds. Reserve the seeds!

Slice the squash into pretty U shaped pieces

Toss them with some salt, pepper, and olive oil and and put them on one of your prepared baking trays.  Roast unit they are cooked through, roughly 45 minutes. 

Meanwhile, put the seeds in a colander and wash to remove the bits of squash flesh. 

Toss them in more salt, pepper and olive oil and put them on the remaining prepared sheet tray. 

Bake until they are crispy- about 15-20 minutes. Open the open half way through cooking and stir. 

Meanwhile make your dressing:

Combine all ingredients except the lemon juice in a food processor and pulse until combined. Add the juice to taste, so that it is zippy but not too sour. If you don’t have a food processor just finely chop the cilantro up and mix it all in a bowl. It will still be delicious. 

When the squash is finished roasting place it in a pretty pattern on your serving dish. Drizzle the pomegranate molasses on top, and dollop the cilantro dressing around. Sprinkle the squash seeds on top!

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Sunday Salads- Squash, Black Bean and Kale Salad with Cilantro and Lime Dressing

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I’m not so big on New Years resolutions. I get that they almost never work out, that they make you feel better after a December of spending too much money and eating too much food. But for the most part they are don’t stick. I understand that.

There is something though, about trying to do better. About trying to start off the year fresh, and put your best foot forward. And who am I to say that that’s for naught.

I will say though that the “I’m going to cut out sugar” or “No more gluten” are, for most of us weak willed dieters at least, not so effective. So instead of declaring something I know won’t stick I’m just saying I’m going to eat more veggies. More raw veggies to be exact.

So with that comes a new Sunday column, after all the fun I had with the Stocking Stuffer Sundays in December, that may only last through January, but who knows. Maybe my resolutions will stick this time round and Sunday Salads will stay. I’m just not quite willing to commit yet. Which might just be my problem!

Cumin Roasted Squash, Black Bean, and and Kale Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing

1 Small firm fleshed Squash, like butternut or acorn.

1 Avacado

1 cup Black Beans, soaked and cooked or canned and drained.

1 Onion

1/3 cup Pecans

1/2 Bunch Kale

1/2 head Butter Lettuce

1 tbsp Ground Cumin

 Dressing

1/2 bunch Cilantro

1/2 bunch Green Onions

1 Lime

1/2 cup Neutral Oil, like Canola or Grapeseed

1 tsp Dijon Mustard

Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 425F

Thinly slice the onion and mix it with the vinegar and a healthy pinch of salt. Set aside.

Peel and cut the squash into big chunks.

Toss with the cumin, a good glug of olive oil and some salt. Put on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake until they are completely cooked through, about 45 minutes.

In a food processor, a blender, or a boil with a hand blender mix together the cilantro, onions, lime juice, mustard and oil. It will all blend into a thick and creamy sauce. If you don’t have a food processor don’t worry, you can chop the cilantro and onions and mix in the liquid ingredients. The dressing won’t be creamy but it will still be delicious. I promise! Taste and check the seasoning and add more lime or salt if you’d like.

Gently pull the kale leaves off of the stem, you want the frilly edges without the tough fibrous veins. Wash these lovely leaves with the butter lettuce.

When the squash is finished cooking put it on a large plate. Mix the dressing with the kale, butter lettuce, black beans, and onion.

Slice the avocado and place on the top and sprinkle with the toasted pecans.