This salad is amenable to any of several dressings; Balsamic, Maple, Apple Balsamic, Cilantro, Cinnamon Cilantro, or even Traditional Blue Cheese or Lighter Blue Cheese Dressing. Any of these will work, but here the recipe is set up with Cilantro Cinnamon Vinaigrette
INGREDIENTS:
1 head Red Butter lettuce (Around 6 cups), cleaned and torn into bite-sized bits 2 cups butternut squash, cut into ½ inch cubes Pinch of cinnamon 1/8th teaspoon garlic powder Olive oil as needed 1 1/3rd cups apple (2-3) cut into 3/8ths inch dice 1 cup (around 2) avocado cut into 3/8ths inch dice ¼ cup pepitas or pine nuts Salt and pepper to taste 1 cup Cilantro Cinnamon Vinaigrette or as neededMETHOD:
Heat the oven to 400°F. Lightly oil a foil covered baking sheet. Put the squash cubes into a bowl and lightly coat with oil, tossing to evenly coat. Season with salt, pepper, the garlic powder, a light dusting of cinnamon, and some ground coriander seed. Toss to coat evenly. Spread out on the prepared baking sheet, being sure there is room between each piece of squash so they crisp up instead of cooking mushy. Place in the center of the oven and cook until golden and tender, with caramelization along the edges of the cubes. This should take around 20 minutes. Allow to cool. If refrigerated, allow to come to room temperature before assembling the salad.
Put the lettuce into a non-reactive bowl and add just enough dressing to moisten the lettuce. Distribute evenly between 4 plates.
Put the squash and apples into the bowl the lettuce was in, and lightly dress. Toss gently to coat, then add the avocado, and add a touch of dressing more. Very gently turn the lot to dress the avocado without smashing it too much. Evenly scatter over the lettuces.
Scatter the pepitas over the salads and season with a little salt and pepper to taste.
Serve.
Chef’s Notes:
As mentioned in the head notes, there are several dressings that would work with this salad. You can vary the garnish accordingly. If using a Blue Cheese dressing, scatter some blue cheese on the salad and use a different nut such as walnuts or pecans. You could use arugula instead, or with, the lettuce, and using the balsamic dressing would make sense. You could make fricco and place them on top of the salad or serve on the side. Pine nuts would be a good choice with this salad as well. If you wish to get very fancy, you can cook fricco and then form them into cones as they cool, and you could stuff the lightly dressed salad into the cones as a play on the Thanksgiving cornucopia.
Serves: 4
Source: Chef Andrew E Cohen
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