Butternut Squash Salad with Chickpeas and Pomegranate Recipe

This butternut squash salad is so tasty as well as being good for you. It's the perfect dish for a buffet at any time of the year, and makes a side dish with a difference for summer BBQs. The creamy tahini dressing adds a wonderful richness to this roasted vegetable salad, but is still suitable for vegans. Butternut squash is a great source of vitamin A, which helps to improve your eyesight, as well as being high in fibre and a good source of potassium. This butternut squash salad is filling and flavourful, jewelled with pomegranate seeds and finished with the delicious tahini dressing. It’s a vegan-friendly salad that is healthy, hearty and so tasty. Roasting squash makes it caramelize slightly, giving depth of flavour and beautiful colour. Whether it’s for a light lunch or satisfying side, this butternut squash salad is guaranteed to go down a treat.

HOW TO MAKE BUTTERNUT SQUASH SALAD

Ingredients

• 1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks
• 2tbsp olive oil
• 600g jar Spanish chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 100g pomegranate seeds
• lime wedges and fresh mint leaves

For the dressing:

• 3tbsp tahini paste
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1tbsp maple syrup

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200C. Toss the squash in the oil, season well then spread out onto a baking tray and roast for 40 mins. To make the dressing, whisk together the tahini, lemon juice, maple syrup and 3tbsp water. Season well. You can adjust the amount of water to make a thicker or thinner dressing.
2. Mix the chickpeas in with the squash and return to the oven for 10 mins. Arrange on a serving platter, scatter over the pomegranate seeds and drizzle over some dressing (serve the rest on the side). Serve with wedges of lime and scatter over the fresh mint.