Shredded brussels sprouts (and/or greens) topped with sweet roasted butternut squash, crunchy earthy toasted walnuts, creamy crumbles of mango ginger stilton cheese and a tumble of pretty red jewels: the pomegranate seeds. Drizzled with a maple dijon vinaigrette, this salad is bursting with colors, flavors and textures.
It’s New Year’s Day and I’m sending all of you blessings for a healthy life, love and prosperity in the year to come (in salad form). The seeds of pomegranates are not only beautiful to look at, they are bursting with juice and also provide a lovely crunch factor to a salad. Pomegranates have diverse cultural-religious significance, as a symbol of life and fertility owing to their many seeds. In Greece, they hurl whole pomegranates to the floor to release a flood of seeds that symbolize life and abundance.
Pomegranates are also super healthy. Even ancient Persians recognized the beneficial effect of pomegranates. Theophrast and Pliny recounted the different varieties and their medicinal properties. Late medieval books on plants described both the appearance and therapeutic effects of pomegranates and today we know that pomegranates contain antioxidants, large quantities of flavonoids such as anthocyanins and quercetin, polyphenols, especially ellagitannins such as punicalagin and phenolic acids such as ellagic acid and gallic acid, with important functions for cell regulation and reducing inflammation. Pomegranates also contain potassium, vitamin A, C, E, calcium and iron, plus they are a good source of fiber and protein.
Photo by Margarita Zueva on Unsplash
I’ve made this salad several times so far: first for myself, to test out the idea, and I loved it so much I had to make it again. I roasted up multiple butternut squashes to support my salad frenzy and then decided I needed to share this lovely creation with my family. I brought a pomegranate with me to our Christmas, which we had late this year since Christmas Day fell on a Wednesday.
We had Christmas goose for dinner with all the traditional fixings: stuffing, mashed potatoes, my twice-baked cauli-tato casserole, green beans, dinner rolls … and this salad. Surprisingly, nobody questioned me when I said I was making a butternut salad this year. (With my family, so many of us love to cook and everyone has their own opinions about how things should be done. Nobody seems to be shy in handing out “advise” on how to do things!) In years past, they’ve told me not to go overboard with the salad “because then the kids wouldn’t eat it”, but there was no such warning this year.
Interestingly, though, some of the kids decided they wanted “plain salad” before I’d added the butternut and pomegranate seeds and such and they came and stole the shredded brussels sprouts mixture so I had to make more before I could finish the salad masterpiece. When I set it on the table, several people remarked on how pretty it was … and after dinner, my mom and my sister said their favorite part of the dinner was the salad. My sister bagged up the leftovers to take home with her, and my dad asked me to make the salad again the following day. Since I still had some roasted butternut and my sister had brought some pomegranate seeds, I obliged. We were out of brussels sprouts by then, so I had to use greens, so please forgive me if my photos are missing the shredded sprouts. Since I’d never had the time or proper lighting for the photos, it was a question of running out to purchase all the ingredients to make the salad yet again or just photographing the salad as it was. I took some photos before dinner and decided that yes, these photos will do for now. Perhaps someday I’ll make it again and update the pictures–or maybe not.
You can use either the sprouts or lettuces or a mix of the two, but using sprouts makes for a sturdier salad that will still taste great the next day. If you use greens, plan to eat it all or you can drizzle the dressing over each serving as its eaten (leaving the dressing off the main salad) so it won’t wilt the greens.
Don’t be stingy on the pomegranate seeds. Sprinkle those beauties liberally!
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Butternut Pomegranate Salad
- Prep Time: 15 min
- Cook Time: 20 min
- Total Time: 35 min
- Category: Salad
Ingredients
For the dressing:
- 1/4 cup real maple syrup
- 1/4 cup white wine, rice or apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon dried dill
- A pinch of granulated garlic
- A pinch of salt
For the salad:
- Butternut squash, cubed and roasted (I recommend this recipe)
- Brussels sprouts, shredded, and/or lettuces/greens of choice (romaine, butter lettuce or spring greens)
- Toasted walnuts, roughly chopped
- Pomegranate seeds
- Mango ginger stilton cheese, crumbled (or other crumbly cheese such as goat cheese or feta)
Instructions
- Peel and cube the butternut squash, then roast until tender. (I highly recommend this recipe for roasting the squash.)
- While the squash is roasting, whisk together the ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Make the salad by first creating a base of shredded brussels sprouts and/or greens. Top with roasted butternut chunks, walnuts and pomegranate seeds, reserving some chunks of squash, nuts and seeds for the top.
- If using brussels sprouts, gently toss with some of the dressing to lightly coat. If using greens, drizzle the dressing on each serving as it’s eaten.
- Sprinkle with the crumbled cheese, then top with the reserved nuts, squash and pomegranate seeds. Enjoy!
Notes
Store any leftover dressing in a sealed jar in the fridge. The dressing is very versatile and a good dressing to have on hand for many different salads. Store extra salad in a covered container in the fridge.
I left out proportions on the salad as it’s very forgiving and allows you to make the salad for one or for a crowd!
RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/ … © Copyright 2020, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.
Keywords: Butternut, Squash, Pomegranate, Salad, Gluten free, Heart healthy
