Fall Bowl

Once again, I took a photo of a Nugget salad in the prepared foods case and copied it on my own.

This dish is the epitome of Fall and would probably be an excellent thing to bring to Thanksgiving.

I went through a little love affair with the kabocha squash recently, but I think butternut is back in my number one spot.  It’s so versatile!  It’s good in even dish.  It’s sweet but doesn’t distract from other flavors and work in almost every cuisine.

Toss the cubes (generously) in olive oil and roast for 30-35 minutes at 375 for the perfect golden result.

Meanwhile, massage those greens!

I used my basic vinaigrette formula here with apple cider vinegar and lemon juice as my acids.

Since I didn’t have as much kale on hand as I wanted, I threw in frozen spinach too.  Whatever works!

I toasted some pecans for the last few minutes as the squash finished roasting and then broiled them with a very close eye for a minute.  Things can go from warm and cozy to smoke scene with nuts and I’m very prone to the latter.  It’s the worst.  Don’t leave the kitchen!

This rainbow really came together nicely once I de-seeded the pomegranate.  Those gem really do feel like nature’s riches on display.  Also, isn’t de-seeding a pom the most therapeutic thing ever?  Like, I don’t know why I love it so much, but cracking open the sections and getting the seeds out of all the nooks and crannies somehow puts me in such a zen state.

For the base of the salad, I had farro cooking away in the rice cooker.   You could use wheatberries too.  Or quinoa or rice if you want to keep it GF.  The chew on farro is kinda awesome, though, so stick with that if you can.  Or you could keep it light (as a side dish perhaps?) and nix the grain altogether.

I almost forgot this final touch!  Skyhill Farms is a local company and the cheesemonger at Nugget was raving about this chevre so I thought it would be perfect.  Initially I was going to do goat cheese and dried cranberries, but this just combined both ingreds making my life even easier.

Turns out, it’s so delicious!  They have a couple of other flavors that I’m going to have to find a way to fit into a recipe, like jalapeño and chipotle & honey.  How good do those sound?  I think a flatbread with some combo of sweet and savory would be heavenly.

P got a cheese-less portion but I let him try some of my chevre later and he was into it, so next time I’ll just give him some.  For some reason, I keep thinking he won’t like stronger cheeses, but I’m always wrong.  I think it’s just me trying to keep their expensive palates in check.  Such a lost cause.  They want to eat fresh salmon and gourmet cheeses and I guess I just have to wrap my head around the fact that our grocery budget is only going to rise from here on out.  Luckily they eat enough rice, beans and potatoes to balance things out.

Fall Bowl

Ingredients:

• 1 butternut squash, cubed
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 bunch curly kale
• 1 cup frozen chopped spinach
• 2 1/2 cups cooked farro (1 cup uncooked)
• 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
• 1 cup pecans
• 2-3 oz chevre
• lemon vinaigrette (see below)

Lemon vinaigrette

• 1/2 cup EVOO
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 T dijon mustard
• 2 T lemon juice
• 1 T maple syrup
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:

First peel, seed and chop the squash.  Toss it in olive oil (use more than 2 tbsp if needed) and pour onto a greased baking sheet.  Roast for 30-35 minutes at 375 degrees.  Add the pecans on another greased sheet when there are 5-8 minutes remaining on the oven timer.

Optionally, once the squash is out of the oven you can crank the oven to broil and get some color on the nuts.

While the squash is roasting make the dressing and cook the farro.  I used the rice cooker, but you can use the stove and just cook it in a 2:1 ratio of water:grain until it’s tender.  Add the frozen spinach at the end and mix to combine everything.

In a large bowl, de-stem and rip up the kale and massage with whatever amount of dressing you want.  Then add everything else in – farro with spinach, squash, pecans, and pom arils.  Combine and pour in more dressing as needed.  Crumble chevre on top before serving.

Ta-da!

(Feel free to omit the cheese to keep it vegan.  It’s plenty hearty on it’s own)

I’m pretty sure this is better than the Nugget prepared foods salad it was based off of, but I’m definitely thankful for the inspiration.