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I’ve been loving this beautiful fall inspired salad for a couple of months now.
The crisp greens, topped with all the fabulous fall flavors of roasted butternut squash…
apples…
cinnamon sugar pecans…
…feta cheese, craisins, tender rotisserie chicken…
…and topped with a sweet Creamy Maple Dijon Dressing that has kept me coming back for more. It’s the very essence of fall! It makes a fantastic main course salad, or would be great to bring along to your Thanksgiving Day Celebration. 😉
Hope you get a chance to try it!
Ingredients
- ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH:
- 1 small butternut squash
- cooking spray or 1 Tb olive oil
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- salt and pepper
- CINNAMON PECANS:
- 1 C pecans
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 C sugar
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- DRESSING:
- 1/4 C olive oil
- 1/4 C mayo
- 5 Tb balsamic or apple cider vinegar
- 1 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/2 C maple syrup
- SALAD:
- 8 C spring mix
- 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
- 2 apples, sliced
- 1 C craisins
- 1 C feta cheese
- 1 1/2 C rotisserie chicken, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Peel your butternut squash, slice it in half and scoop out the seeds and pulp. Cut it into small cubes.
- Toss with olive oil (or cooking spray) and cook for 20 minutes or until crisp tender. Remove from the oven and toss with the cinnamon, salt and pepper and set aside to cool.
- While your butternut squash cooks, add all the Cinnamon Pecan ingredients to a medium sized skillet and stir to combine. Cook over medium high heat until the sugar starts to dissolve and melt. Stir continuously until the sugar has turned to a medium brown color. Don't let it get too dark. There is a short window of opportunity here ;). Immediately remove from the heat and pour onto a plate to cool. Make sure not to leave these tasty treasures in the pan to cool. The pan will continue to cook the sugar and it will burn quickly.
- To make the dressing, combine all the dressing ingredients into small blender and blend to combine.
- To make the salad, lay the spring mix and chopped romaine lettuce in the bottom of a serving bowl. Lay all of the other salad ingredients, including the cooled butternut squash and cinnamon pecans, into rows on top of the greens. It makes for a pretty presentation to serve it this way.
- Place the dressing in a pretty container to serve along side the salad, allowing your family or guests to add as much or as little as they'd like.
Enjoy!
Recipe from Jamie Cooks It Up!
Hi Jamie! Longtime fan of you and every recipe you create! I was wondering, is there any chance you could repost your recipe for chocolate pecan pie? You originally posted it to The plus side website and that website isn’t coming up anymore.
Wendy,
Thank you so much for letting me know. I appreciate it so much. I have added the recipe to the post here on my site. So happy to know you have loved it in the past.
All the best,
~Jamie
https://jamiecooksitup.net/2015/11/chocolate-pecan-pie/