Roasted Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad – VeganMoFo Day 8

Today’s VeganMoFo prompt is all about salad. Yeah, the thing that we as vegans apparently eat a whole ton of. Just leaves, right? What else can we eat? (I hope I don’t have to answer that, if you’ve been reading this blog!) But salad can actually be nice. If I’m honest, most of the salad I eat is in sandwiches or burgers, but sometimes I fancy making a salad for dinner. I tend to make it nice and hearty though.

This butternut squash and chickpea salad is perfect for this time of year. It’s served warm, with the squash and chickpeas roasted in the oven, and the pepperiness of the rocket – also, I learnt, called arugula in the US – compliments the sweet tinge of the squash in a wonderful way.

If you’ve never tried roasting chickpeas, please give this a go! Roasting them brings out their nutty flavour and gives a nice crispness to them.

I’ll also explain how I make my salad dressing. I use an old mustard jar, washed clean, but you could mix it in a bowl with a fork/whisk, or use any clean jar you have. Put the dressing ingredients in, and just shake it! Shake it hard (with the lid on, of course), until it all emulsifies and forms a lovely dressing.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Chickpea Salad

• Servings: 2
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Ingredients

• 1 butternut squash, cut into bitesize chunks
• 1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt
• few grinds black pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Rocket/arurgula, to serve
• 1 tsp mustard (the hot stuff)
• 1 tsp tahini
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt + pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F
1. Begin by placing the cubed squash on a baking tray with the chickpeas. Stir in the onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and olive oil.
2. Place the tray in the oven for forty minutes, giving it all a stir once halfway.
3. Meanwhile make the dressing. In a jar, add the mustard, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, and salt & pepper, and shake until emulsified. Taste and adjust seasoning.
4. To serve, place rocket on a plate, top with the chickpea butternut squash mixture, and drizzle over salad dressing.