Winter Chopped Salad

34 Comments

In the mood for something healthy and delicious?  Well, I have just the thing for a nutritious and flavorful meal:  kale, butternut squash, pears, dried fruit, nuts, and goat cheese–just add your favorite dressing. Some of you may not be big fans of kale, but it is really quite good, especially when combined with all the other ingredients in this salad. Farmguy doesn’t love kale, but he LOVED this dish.  Love it or not, kale is considered one of the healthiest and most nutritious plant foods in existence:  great source of vitamins and minerals, can help lower cholesterol, contains powerful antioxidants, loaded with medicinal properties, and an excellent source of vitamin C (1 cup of kale has more vitamin C than a whole orange).  So, I hope you will give kale a try and consider this winter chopped salad.  I promise….it’s worth it.  Enjoy!

 

Winter Chopped Salad:

Serves 2

*Use organic ingredients when possible.

Ingredients:

2-4 cups of curly kale

2 medium Bosc pears

1 small butternut squash

1 tablespoon good quality olive oil

1 tablespoon good quality maple syrup

2 tablespoons dried cranberries

candied or plain walnuts/pecans

crumbled goat cheese

pinch of sea salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Chop kale and wash.  Set kale aside to drain/dry.  Next, Chop butternut squash into 1 to 1 1/2-inch cubes.  Place butternut squash into a gallon size ziploc bag, adding olive oil, maple syrup, and a pinch of sea salt.  Then, shake until mixed well.  Spread butternut squash in a single layer on a baking sheet and bake for approximately 35 minutes.  After preparing butternut squash, slice pears into sections and cube.  Next, place pear cubes into the same ziploc bag with leftover olive oil and maple syrup, coating the pears thoroughly.  When butternut squash is finished baking, bake pears for approximately 20 minutes.  To assemble salad, place kale into a bowl.  Add butternut squash and pear cubes. Sprinkle goat cheese, nuts, and dried cranberries to taste.  Add vinaigrette–fig and walnut or pear work well.  Then toss all ingredients.  Serve with crusty bread.

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34 Comments »

  3. I like your delicious recipe and am a very big salad eater. 🙂 I was telling someone about a local place that includes beets, grilled artichokes and brussel sprouts in their winter salad. I sure did enjoy these and realize how many years I didn’t like these vegetables due to being boiled instead of properly prepared. Beets are so delicious when pickled, too. Smiles, Robin

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  13. What a perfect Winter salad Tonya!! I the combination of flavors, colors, and textures!! Salty, Sweet, Tangy, Crunchy and YUMMY. Hope all is going well and you’ve had a chance to recover from all that snow.

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  14. Reblogged this on BubblyBEE.com and commented:
    This Winter Chopped Salad sounded so tempting…even though I am not a big kale fan…the butternut squash and maple syrup just sounded so good…that I just had to make it and I am so glad I did! I happened to have some golden raisins and a little grated Swiss cheese so I tossed those in with the other ingredients (I used baby kale) and what a fabulous treat…enjoy this recipe!

    Liked by 1 person

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