Roasted Butternut Squash & Kale Salad

I do love a good salad. I love the versatility, the simplicity, and the endless possibility for trying new flavour combinations. Not to mention you can pack them full of protein and veggies and make a quick, easy, filling, and healthy meal.

With autumn on the way though, it’s time for a season-appropriate shift in the typical salad constituents: Out with the cucumber and watermelon and in with the roasted vegetables.   

Butternut squash and kale are both in season now, and they make a great combination: Soft and sweet with crispy and just-a-little-bit bitter. They’re also nutrient powerhouses loaded with important vitamins (especially K in kale and A in butternut squash), minerals and antioxidants. Together with wholewheat couscous, seeds and goats cheese, a serve of this salad's providing more than a third of your RDA for fibre (11.3g of the recommended 30g). It's also a good source of slow-release carbs (think, good lunch option to take you all the way through to dinner) and a pretty good source of protein (although if it's workout day or you just need a little more protein, you might want to add some cooked chicken breast, or have a yoghurt for dessert).

Makes 2 serves

Ingredients

• Half a small butternut squash, deseeded and cut into 2cm cubes

• 1 small red onion, peeled and cut into wedges

• 75g chopped kale

• 75g wholewheat giant (pearl) couscous

• 20g sunflower seeds

• 20g pumpkin seeds

• A couple of slices of feta or soft goats cheese

• A sprig of rosemary

• 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

• Olive oil, for roasting

• Salt and black pepper

  For the dressing:

• 1/2 small clove garlic

• A sprig of rosemary, leaves chopped finely

• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• Salt and pepper

Method

• Preheat your oven to 180ºC.

• Tip the prepared cubes of butternut squash into a large baking tray along with a little olive oil, a sprig of rosemary and a pinch of salt, then place in the oven.

• Meanwhile, cook the couscous according to packet instructions. Once cooked, drain, pour over a little olive oil to prevent it from sticking, and set aside.

• After 10 minutes or so, take the squash out of the oven and shake the tray to move the squash about; use a spatula to scrape any bits that are stuck to the bottom, if necessary. Add the sliced onion to the tray then return to the oven.

• Prepare the dressing by combining the chopped rosemary and lemon juice in a small bowl. Crush the garlic using the back of a knife and add to the bowl along with the olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste and set aside.

• Toast the seeds by adding to a small pan over a medium/high heat. This shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes, so keep a careful eye on them and keep swishing the pan around, as they'll burn quickly if they get hot and catch.

• Check the squash and onion. After 25-30 minutes or so, they should be beginning to soften and go brown at the edges. Remove the tray from the oven and shake the vegetables about again if things are starting to stick.

• Combine the kale with a little oil and the nutmeg (I find adding the oil and nutmeg into the bag of kale and giving them a shake around does a good job of coating the leaves evenly), then add to the tray with the other vegetables. (The kale will cook quickly - no more than 5 minutes, so make sure your other vegetables are pretty much cooked to your liking before you add the kale in this final step).

• Return the tray to the oven for about 5 minutes, removing and shaking again if necessary to make sure the kale is cooked evenly (kale can burn easily at the edges, so keep an eye out for this).

• Once everything looks nicely roasted, remove the tray from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Then stir through the couscous, pour over the dressing - leaving the crushed garlic behind - and top with the seeds.

• Spoon the warm salad out onto plates and crumble over the cheese before you’re ready to serve.

Nutrition

	Per 100g	Per serve (325 g)
Calories	154.6 kcal	490.9 kcal
Carbohydrate	14.8 g	47.1 g
of which sugars	3.4 g	11.0 g
Fat	7.8 g	24.9 g
of which saturates	2.0 g	6.4 g
Protein	5.4 g	17.2 g
Fibre	3.6 g	11.3 g