Roasted Cauliflower and Butternut Squash Salad with Crispy Chickpeas and Creamy Tahini Dressing
A salad worthy of supper
I love this kind of salad. Full of chunk and texture in every bite. More of a rubble than a salad. So much so, we call this type of salad a rubble salad in our house. I love the combination of roasted cauliflower and butternut squash tossed together with pearl cous cous, lots of herbs, crumbled feta and crispy chickpeas. It’s all drizzled in a very delicious tahini dressing. Oh I really love this salad.
If you haven’t made crispy chickpeas before, you’re in for a treat, they are so incredibly good. So easy and they make everything you sprinkle them on significantly more delicious. They go gorgeously crispy, like a little crispy healthy crouton.
And do you know what, a salad like this really does make a great weeknight supper. This kind of salad also works really well for meal prep as there aren’t lots of leaves in danger of going limp and soggy. I love making this for supper and then knowing I have it ready in the fridge for the next day. Not only is it delicious but it’s so simple to put together. A little bit of chopping, then you bung things in the oven where it all gets soft yet crispy, a little bit caramelised, and then really the hard work is done. Make the dressing, cook the cous cous and suddenly supper is ready.
If you live in a household or with a person who cannot wrap their head around the fact a salad could be classified as supper, I get it. This would be lovely with crispy chicken thighs, or roast chicken, or a side to a perfectly cooked steak or lamb chops.
This tahini dressing is so good. Wondrously creamy. The quality of your tahini does make a difference. And if it’s been languishing in your fridge too long, then I’m afraid you must get a new one as it does go off and can get rather bitter. I am yet to find one I like as much as Belazu (if you’re in the UK - couldn’t recommend this more).
ps. I found this purple cauliflower in our local greengrocer and could not resist as she looked so pretty, but obviously any cauliflower will do. I’ve also got thoughts in the Note section about variations you could do that would be lovely in this salad. And don’t be scared by the ingredient list, it’s really just a few key ingredients and the rest is stuff you have in the store cupboard like olive oil, salt and pepper etc.
Serves 2 (possibly with leftovers)
For the roasted veg
1/4 butternut squash, peeled and cut into cubes
1/2 small cauliflower, roughly chopped
drizzle of olive oil
salt and pepper
Crispy chickpeas
1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
drizzle of olive oil
salt and pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp onion powder (optional)
1/2 tsp garlic powder)
Everything else:
80g pearl cous cous (I always cook with 1/2 a stock cube as an easy way to add flavour)
2 tbsp chopped parsley
50g feta, crumbled
large handful of rocket
Optional: Quick pickled red onion: 1/2 red onion, finely sliced, scrunched together in a bowl with the juice of half a lime and pinch of flakey salt and left to sit for 5 mins
For the dressing:
70 g tahini
1/2 lemon, juiced (about 2 tbsp)
1 tbsp honey depending on how sweet you like it you can add a squeeze more but start with this
1 pinch flakey sea salt
1 clove garlic, crushed
about 2-3 tbsp Water
Method
Preheat the oven to 200c
Place the cauliflower and butternut squash on a large baking tray - you want to make sure it’s in one layer. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and that goes into the oven for 30-35 mins until golden and crispy. Keep an eye on it and give it a stir half way through to avoid any burning.
Pat the drained chickpeas dry with some kitchen paper and tip onto a smaller baking tray. These take about 20-25 minutes in the oven so pop them in with the other roasting vegetables. They don’t have to be hot to be great so if you cook them and they sit around for a while that doesn’t matter at all.
While everything is roasting. Boil the cous cous in stock - according to the packet instructions. Should take about 5 minutes.
Now to make the dressing. Add tahini, lemon juice, honey, garlic and salt to a bowl. Whisk to combine. Then slowly add water- this will counter intuitively make the dressing really lovely and creamy. Add water until it’s a drizzle-able consistency. Don’t panic if the mixture seizes up and thickens a lot when you start adding the water - just keep whisking and adding a little more water at a time until it gets creamy and smooth.
Taste - this is important. Everyone’s tahini will taste a little different, so it’s important to taste and adjust flavour as needed. Does it need more lemon? More salt? More honey? Taste. Adjust. Taste.
Once everything is cooked add it to a large salad bowl. Add the crumbled feta, chopped parsley and some pickled red onions Drizzle over a little of the dressing, toss it together, and taste. Add more dressing if you want and toss again. Don’t add all the dressing at once as you may not need it all and you don’t want to drown it.
Enjoy!
Squash
Any kind of squash or pumpkin would work really well. And this is their time to shine, so you can get lovely ones at this time of year. You can also scrape out the seeds, pat them dry and roast them in the same way you do the chickpeas for another little crunchy bit to toss through the salad
Grains
This salad definitely still works without grains - just up the amount of the vegetables you use. If you want to mix it up you could use bulghur wheat, or pearl barley, wild rice, puy lentils or normal cous cous. All would work really well.
Roasted veg
I love this particular combination, but you could also use red onion, cut into wedges, diced courgette (zucchini), broccoli, sweet potato or baby new potatoes. All would work really well. I also love it with beetroot. But I would boil the beetroot - you just boil them whole with the skin on until soft when poked with a knife - then the skin comes straight off and you can cut into dice.
Dressing
If you don’t like tahini - this salad also works really well with a garlicky vinaigrette - something like 3tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp honey, 1 tsp dijon mustard and 1 crushed clove of garlic. Lots of salt and pepper. Yum. Or you could try an avocado and yoghurt dressing where you blitz these up in a blender with some lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. V good.
If you want to meal prep….
Don’t add rocket to the salad you want to eat the next day or it will go too soggy. I would toss everything else together, pop it into a container and then top with a handful of rocket but just leave it on the top.
What to do with the rest of the cauliflower and butternut squash?
I tend to roast the whole lot of them even if I’m not going to use them all for this salad as I love having them in the fridge to add to different dishes throughout the week. But if you don’t want to do that, you could use them in a delicious curry the next night, or I like making cauliflower mash as a slightly lighter option to mashed potato. Or cut into wedges and roast the next night but serve it like this. Butternut squash works beautifully in a soup. Try this recipe here!
Thank you for reading this weeks edition of Dinner Tonight. See you next week!