This Healthy Fall Superfood Salad is loaded with roasted butternut squash, pecans, pomegranate, and a creamy orange cinnamon vinaigrette for the perfect autumn meal.
Why does food taste fifty-seven trillion times better when some one else makes it for you?
Whether it’s a cute little cafe or my mom or some one at Alchemy, I freaking adore being handed a plate of food. Even though I have made everything we serve at Alchemy at home, I still think everything tastes exponentially more magical when the staff makes it rather than me.
Enter salads. I rarely make them at home because let’s face it…everyone else does it better than me.
Until this very moment.
I did a salad. I DID A SALAD. I did a really, really yumtastical salad.
I made it all by my lonesome. I served it to myself on a pretty new plate. I ate it in solitude. And I smiled. At least twice.
If you’ve been reading my blog for longer than like a day, you know that my obsession for hemp seeds runs deep. Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts have been a staple in my diet ever since I discovered their greatness a couple years back. Hemp Hearts are simply raw shelled hemp seeds with a slightly nutty, mild taste similar to sunflower seeds or pine nuts. They’re the highest protein seed, but I adore them most for omega-3 content. Per serving, they have 10 grams of easy to digest protein and 10 grams of omega-3 fatty acids. That means these super seeds have nearly double the protein and omegas as flax (and about a third more than chia) with three times less carbohydrates. I smell a winner.
Hemp Hearts can be incorporated into pretty much anything. They have a very mild, almost undetectable flavor and that’s exactly why I add them to anything and everything. I especially love using them in salad dressings because the healthy fats add unparalleled creaminess.
Fall means squash. In my world, squash means cinnamon. And salad. BABY KALE. Kale babes.
It’s the answer to not liking big daddy kale. The leaves are so much more mild and palatable and still packed with nutrition. This salad is my fave because I can toss it all together with the dressing, throw it in a Tupperware, and eat it for lunches throughout the week without having to worry about packing the dressing separately in an itty bitty salad dressing container that’s 99.9% going to spill and ruin EVERYTHING.
It would be so silly for you not to make this.
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Packed with the best of fall produce, this tasty superfood salad with orange cinnamon vinaigrette is the perfect light lunch.
Ingredients
For the salad:
- 1/2 butternut squash, cubed
- 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 5oz pkg baby kale
- 1 pomegranate, de-seeded
- 1/2 cup chopped pecans
- 1/2 bunch green onions, chopped (or 1/2 small red onion, sliced)
- 3 tbsp Hemp Hearts
For the dressing:
- 1/3 cup orange juice
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp Hemp Hearts
- 1 tbsp pure maple syrup
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Place cubed squash on a lined baking sheet. Drizzle with oil, cinnamon, and salt. Toss to combine. Roast for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place kale, pomegranate, pecans, onions, and Hemp Hearts in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Place all dressing ingredients in a blender (I used my Nutribullet). Blend until smooth and creamy.
- Add baked squash to salad bowl, Drizzle with dressing and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
[Tweet “The BEST Fall Superfood Salad via @TheHummusapien @ManitobaHarvest #ad”]
This post was sponsored by Manitoba Harvest. Thanks for supporting the brands that make Hummusapien possible!
Rachel @ athletic avocado says
Amen to huge fall salads like this one! I love adding cubed butternut to my salads, it gives it a sweet and savory feel!
Julia says
I love the way you do salads, woop woop! This is the exact type of salad I could eat every day and neeeee’er get sick of it! Those hemp seeds – superfood perfection!
Hannah @CleanEatingVeggieGirl says
I totally agree. I don’t make salads all that often at home because they NEVER taste as good as they do at a restaurant or from a salad bar. I don’t know what it is, but I just can’t seem to pull it together! :(
Mary P says
Oh boy, anything with butternut squash during fall. This looks fantastic and I just bought butternut squash..it was meant to be.
She Rocks Fitness says
YUMMY! I have only added hemp hearts to my breakfast, but definitely need to up my game and add them to my salads, scrambles, and anything else savory…Happy Monday friend! XOXO
Chelsea @ Chelsea's Healthy Kitchen says
This looks like my ideal salad! I’m all about the winter squash right now. Except between teaching classes at work & prepping food at home I cut up so many squash last week that my arms actually got sore, lol! I wish I could buy a machine to cut and peel them for me.
Catherine @ foodiecology says
I loooovvveee hemp hearts! I also love all the magical autumn ingredients you’ve thrown into this salad! Looks and sounds delicious. Want to make it for me? (Since, like you said, homemade salads are never as good as when somebody else makes them.) :-)
Kate says
I totally know what you mean about salads never being as good at home. I feel like mine never “mesh” right. And I cried a silent tear when you mentioned salad dressing pouring out on everything… that’s happened too many times to talk about.
I do love me some baby kale! It is way better than grown-up kale.
Dani @ Dani California Cooks says
Coffee ALWAYS tastes better when someone else makes it for me. And growing up if I got a PB&J from someone else’s mother, I was always like “mom, why can’t you make PB&Js like her” which I’m sure took years off her life.
Heidi Kokborg says
Need to make this salad! I love butternut squash! & I love that you added cinnamon to the recipe!!
Alexandra @ Made to Glow says
Just saw this on your facebook page. Looks amazing! Definitely making – adding the ingredients to my grocery list :) Thank you!
Anna says
Wow, your site has amazing recipes/pics. Just pinned this one as I was searching around for salads with pomegranate in it. That chickpea snickerdoodle smoothie is a great idea too. Love it
Alexis says
Thanks, Anna! Come back soon :)
Donna says
This super food salad is really looking so great! Especially the butternut squash and Baby kale. They’re my most favorite. Thanks, Alexis for putting them together :)
Donna recently posted in…Best Blender Under 100 Dollar
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