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Please Fave the Original Submission here.

Certainly a healthy delight form !

Open For Critique / Constructive Criticism

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Every Friday I get given gifts of vegetables, fruits, herbs and breads. So it ends up being a challenge to work out what to cook up. I'm sure they save some of the items just for me because half the time most of their other recipients don’t know what to do with them.

What food gifts did I receive this Friday? Well I was given spaghetti squash, butter-nut pumpkin, oranges, herbs, lemons, a variety of tomatoes, zucchini, baby carrots and a variety of breads/rolls. Carrots and zucchini – I have eggs and cheese so I'll make a slice on the weekend but the other items require using too. Note: I’m saving the lemons for later and bread just gets frozen or used up in the course of the week. This is what I came up with for the remainder of the items.

Pumpkin/Squash Orange Salad

Ingredients

Salad

½ large Butter-nut Pumpkin
1 small spaghetti squash – De seeded, cooked and removed from skin
2 tomatoes or a punnet of little ones – diced
Small bunch of parsley or mint
Salt and pepper to taste

Dressing

2 large oranges
8 tsp good olive oil
½ tsp sesame oil
2-3 tsp Honey or Maple Syrup
Handful of fresh rosemary
Zest of 1 orange
2 tsp mustard
5 tsp Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Utensils

Zester or peeler
Knives
Cutting boards
Scissors to cut up herbs or peel
Appropriate cooking vessels and bowls
Blender and or grinder of some sort (I have a bullet blender and bullet grinder)

In the event you don’t have a blender: replace the blended orange with orange juice and use a large jar or similar product to shake the whole lot together. Most other items can be finely chopped by hand using a knife or scissors and vigorously shaken to emulsify and make the dressing.


Method

Salad

The Pumpkin - Deseed, cut into large chunks and roast with the skin on. Take the pumpkin out while it is still firm and just barely cooked through. Let them cool, remove the skin and dice the pieces then pop them into a large salad bowl.

The Spaghetti Squash – Once the squash is cut in half and you've scooped out the seeds, just flip it upside down in a microwave safe dish, fill it with about an inch of water, and microwave until soft. This usually takes another five to 10 minutes, depending on the size of the squash and your microwave wattage. It is cooked once a knife can glide through easily. Get a fork and tease out the squash strands away from the skin. It will look like thin glossy spaghetti. Place this in the bowl with the pumpkin (Note: this squash can be steamed or roasted so don’t panic if you don’t have a microwave.)
Dice the tomatoes (or halve little tomatoes) and add to salad.
Chop parsley and or mint and add this to the salad.
Sprinkle with salt and or pepper to your liking.
Very gently mix or toss the salad together. Set the salad aside and make the dressing.
Add the orange pieces to the salad when you are making the dressing.


Dressing

The Oranges - peel using a vegetable peeler and keep the peel for later, remove all pith (the bitter white stuff from both), segment the oranges and chop each segment into thirds. One orange goes into the bullet or mini blender the other goes into the salad.

The Orange Peel/zest – you only need the zest from one orange (the remainder can be frozen for later use). If you used a peeler to remove the orange skins – pop the peels into a bullet grinder or finely chop up the peel. Add this to the bullet blender with one whole orange.

The rosemary – Chop finely or use a bullet grinder and add this to the blender with the orange and zest.

I suggest blending the mix at this point.

Add the remaining ingredients of the dressing and blend well to emulsify and combine them.

Taste the dressing – at this point you may need to adjust the salt, pepper, sweetness or vinegar to balance it out. This varies due to the type of orange, the sweetness or tartness of it and your own personal tastes.

This can be served as a full meal or as a side dish. If desired you can also serve this hot or cold. I personally prefer it as a cold salad. I dress individual bowls of the salad rather than the whole lot or put the dressing in a cream/gravy boat and invite others to dress it as they choose.

Added info

This salad compliments various styles of tofu, fish and chicken best and is great in a sandwich or as an alternative salad mix in burgers. It is a versatile salad that can be served in a taco, burrito or even popped into a baking dish, topped with cheese and baked as full on hot dish.

This is a Vegetarian salad but if you are Vegan replace the honey with maple syrup.

For those who are carnivores or consider meat an essential try adding grated cheeses, cooked chicken pieces, salmon, tuna or even bacon pieces to the salad. It accompanies salt and pepper calamari very well.

Alternatives

Replace the pumpkin with sweet potatoes
Spaghetti Squash is very seasonal so it can be replaced with actual spaghetti or noodles

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Allergy warning – please read all recipes carefully and be aware of any allergies or sensitivities that may affect your health and well-being