Roast Pumpkin Salad

May 4

with herb oil, goats cheese and pickled onions

After the Easter break full of chocolate and soft buttery hot cross buns, finding some balance in the form of nutritious food feels good. I am a huge fan of salads that are hearty enough to plate alone for dinner or lunch, and this delicious roast pumpkin salad fits the bill perfectly. I am joined this week on the blog by Ebonie, owner of The Bright Campaign and part-time passionate cook. Ebonie’s mission with The Bright Campaign is to bring some colour to your life through practical and beautifully bright home and lifestyle products that are sustainable. Here, she is dishing up a delicious and bright salad for us all to enjoy. Thanks Ebonie for the recipe.

Over recent years, my husband has a new found passion for the charcoal grill. He specialises in mostly meats (of course) but personally I love a lot of veg on my plate. When we have people over and the charcoal grill is in action, I’m usually on sides duty (but let’s be real, these can often be the star of the show).

I love a good prep-ahead salad that’s ready and waiting for when it’s go time (i.e. the meat is to temp! That charcoal can be temperamental). This one doesn’t have too many ingredients and is quite flexible to what you have on hand or can source (see subs below).

The pickled onion recipe makes more than you need – you can thank me later – they are a delight to put on or in pretty much everything! Doubling it and making a big jar is not a terrible idea.

Doubling this whole salad recipe should be considered too – depending on numbers to be fed.

Pumpkin Salad with herb oil, goats cheese, pickled onion and hazelnuts

Serves 4 as a side.
Recipe adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi

Ingredients

Pickled Red Onions

3 small red onions, peeled and thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and bruised
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 cup white wine vinegar
2 tsp sugar (I used caster)
1 tsp salt

Salad

1 large butternut pumpkin (1.4kg-ish) or a similar sized other pumpkin (you might call this squash)
3 tbs olive oil
2 cups baby spinach, washed
100g goats cheese, torn into 2cm pieces
60g roasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

Herb oil

½ cup herbs (I like a mix of parsley and coriander)
4-5 tbs olive oil
salt, to taste

method

For the pickled onions:

At least 2 hours before you want to serve (day before is even better), get these on the go. Put the onions in a colander with the garlic and the peppercorns. Pour freshly boiled water over them to soften, letting the water drain away. Place onion mix into a clean jar that has a lid that will seal. In a small bowl, mix together the vinegar, salt and sugar and once combined, pour over the onions in the jar. Gently push the onions down so that they submerged under the liquid as much as possible. Seal the lid on your jar and leave your onions to rest for at least 2 hours or overnight in the fridge is best (they will be good for at least a week in the fridge).

Salad:

Preheat oven to 220c. Remove the skin and seeds of the pumpkin with a large sharp knife. Cut the pumpkin into large bite sized pieces and coat in 3 tbs of olive oil and sprinkle with a generous amount of salt and pepper (you can do this in a bowl or on the lined baking tray you will bake on). Transfer the pumpkin to a lined large baking tray and make sure the pieces are spaced apart. Roast for 25-30 mins, turning over once, until cooked and golden brown. Remove from oven, gently toss them in any extra oil from the tray and set aside for at least 10 mins to cool (or until you are ready to serve).

While the pumpkin is cooking, make your herb oil. Blitz your herbs, 4 tbs of the oil and a generous pinch of salt in a mini blender/processor. If you don’t have one, just chop the herbs super fine and mix in with the oil, salt and pepper – it will be more of a salsa. You can add the extra oil if it needs it (herb measuring isn’t an exact science).

When you’re ready to serve, layer your baby spinach on the plate and arrange pumpkin over the top. Then dot your cheese across the pumpkin, drizzle your herb oil over, scatter over some of the pickled onions (add to taste - no need to drain too much as the vinegar is a nice acid to the herb oil) and sprinkle the hazelnuts over with some flaked salt and freshly ground pepper.

Enjoy!

Note: feel free to substitute. Sub the pumpkin for sweet potatoes, the goats cheese for feta, hazelnuts for any other nut or seed even. And the herb oil works with any leafy herb. You can also sub the white vinegar for red or apple cider vinegar but your onions won’t be quite as bright.

How to serve – This works beautifully with grilled meats as part of a dinner spread but can also be served as a full meal on rice or quinoa maybe with some extra greens. You might want to add more herb oil to mix it through the rice and spinach though.