Let your squash be merry! This delicious Roasted Kabocha Squash Salad will soak up the perfectly paired Beer Vinaigrette in no time. A great seasonal fall salad for a family dinner or large gathering.
I love getting together with friends and even better if we are all asked to bring a dish to share. This past Saturday an expert cocktail mixer friend invited 3 lush volunteers/friends over for a Gin Cocktail party. It’s a hobby but her cocktails are always off the hook. Well we were asked to bring a dish that would go with gin. A tall order!
I wanted to use one of the four gorgeous squashes I recently bought and fell on this recipe. If there is already booze in the vinaigrette is has to work with drinks, right? All 4 potent Gin cocktails were a hit, and so was this Roasted Kabocha Squash Salad with a Beer Vinaigrette!
I found plenty of mentions of gin and squash pairing well. I decided to use the Red Kabocha squash I got during a recent visit to a squash farm in Lanaudière, Quebec. If you are looking for a weekend outing this is it during the fall season. So much fun!
Anyways I felt the Kabocha had the best dense texture and sweeter taste for this salad. The cubes did not fall apart or turn to mush when tossed. I read you can eat the skin of the Kabocha squash so I left it on. It is up to you but the skin was completely soft and edible.
First step is roasting the Kabocha with olive oil, salt and rosemary. Try not to eat all the slices once they come out of the oven is step 2. Then just prepare the salad recipe which I found over on 101 Cookbooks. I got rave reviews and plenty of requests for the recipe so I thought I would share it with you all.
If you are wondering, no you cannot taste the beer in the salad a lot. Next time I make this Roasted Kabocha Squash Salad I would be tempted to try it with a Ginger beer, I think the ginger would compliment the salad well. If you do not drink alcohol I would recommend trying a ginger beer soda. With the brilliant colors of this salad, it is nice to pair it with a lovely contrasting dish when serving to guests, perhaps the perfect one is at kohls and you can shop with coupons from kohls.
And do not forget to save and roast those pumpkin seeds, they make a great snack.
Roasted Kabocha Squash Salad with a Beer Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 1 medium Kabocha squash
- 4 celery stalks diced
- 1/ 2 medium red onion finely chopped
- 2 big handfuls toasted walnuts chopped
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 2/3 cup beer
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoon honey or brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
Instructions
- Roast squash: cut in 2 and remove seeds. Cut into 1 1/2 inch thick slices and toss with olive oil, a sprinkle of salt and 1/2 teaspoon rosemary. Roast slices in the top third of a 425F pre-heated oven for about 15-20 minutes, or until tender. Cool and cut into 1-inch pieces.
- Whisk the beer, mustard, vinegar, olive oil, honey, and salt together.
- Toss the squash with 1/3 of the vinaigrette in a bowl and let it rest for a 1-2 minutes. Add and mix the celery, onions, walnuts, raisins and 1/3 more of the vinaigrette. Toss again. The squash should absorb all the vinaigrette. Toss in the remaining vinaigrette gently and add more salt if needed. Let the salad rest 5-10 minutes before serving.
Sounds wonderful 🙂 I love roasting pumpkin and the beer vinaigrette sounds very intriguing 😀
Haven’t seen Kabochas at the market yet, but when I do, this salad is on the list. This a salad meal!
Roasting pumpkin gives a very profound flavor. This is one delicious salad Evelyne!
Oh man this looks absolutely delicious! Then again, I am absolutely crazy about anything with Kabocha!
Rae | Love from Berlin
Beer vinaigrette sounds AWESOME. One of my favorite fall recipes I’ve seen this season!
Thanks Viviane, so sweet!
Roasted Kabocha = ROCKS MY LIFE. Seriously, SOOOOO addictive. I eat whole squashes in one sitting! LOL
Yep I could too probably lol
Bet this is delicious! Too bad you can’t taste a hint of beer though. 🙂
Just have a glass with it 🙂
What an interesting flavour combo! I love roasted pumpkin and squash. I wonder if we get kabocha here? We have similar looking pumpkins but they have different names.
Lorraine this recipe is great with all winter squashes, better if it is one with a denser texture. So try a local variety out without fear.
This salad looks wonderful! A nice variety of flavors and textures 🙂
Definitely a fun one for the palate!
I remember growing up, I couldn’t stand squash lol. Don’t ask me why but I wanted nothing to do with squash at all. And slowly I begin to like it as an adult. But I absolutely love this dish Evelyne. My mouth is definitely watering.
I was a slow convert too but love them now. And trying original recipes with them helps.
Interesting idea, although I cannot use beer but seems delish 🙂
Try ginger beer soda as I mentioned at the end of the post 🙂
I love roast veggies! And squash (ok, and sweet potatoes) are the best of the lot. My problem is always your step #2 — not eating them all when they come out of the oven! Anyway, this is wonderful — thanks!
The darn #2 lol. I had to resist but still had enough for the salad. Thanks for stopping by John.
Definitely my kind of meal! That beer vinaigrette sounds really intriguing, Evelyne.
Thanks Angie, you have great salads to try this dressing with I am sure
This is my kind of food. Vibrant and colourful. But the beer dressing is the icing on the cake. I’d love to add that dressing to all my salads:-)
I felt my last posts were bland, love the color too! Hope you give the recipe a shot.
Looks really delicious and what an interesting dressing, great idea you got here
Thanks Raymund and give that dressing a try!
I would never have thought to use beer for a salad dressing! What an interesting idea 🙂
The beer dressing, so good 🙂