Butternut Squash Spinach Salad With Pomegranate Vinaigrette

This Roasted Butternut Squash Spinach Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette is filling, healthy, delicious, gluten-free, packed with nutrients and fiber! This fall salad is a great choice for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, or any other Fall and Winter holiday menu!

Jump to:

• Why make this recipe?
• Basic Ingredients, Variations, and Substitutions
• Pomegranate Vinaigrette 
• How can I prep for this salad in advance?
• How to make this salad with homemade dressing? Step by step process –
• More Salad Recipes
• Roasted Butternut Squash Spinach Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette
• Video

Raise your hand if you’re loving the autumn vibes. However, autumn doesn’t mean the only pumpkin.

So here I am sharing a lovely salad made with butternut squash, spinach, pecans, cranberries, and pomegranate.

This salad is everything but not boring!!

If you think salads are boring, you definitely haven’t had a good salad yet.

Salads are a great side dish for the holiday table, especially the salads I am showcasing today. They’re beautiful, hearty, fresh, and loaded with great seasonal ingredients and lots of flavors.

As a bonus, much of their prep work can be done ahead, so you can put them together easily and quickly just before dinner.

Why make this recipe?

Because it

• has an amazing texture thanks to the crunchy pecans, fresh vegetables, and pomegranate!
• is a healthy recipe that you can make any time of the year
• gives a boost of antioxidants, vitamins, and fiber.
• is easy enough to prepare in a hurry– which is crucial around the holidays
• keeps well refrigerated.
• is crowd-pleaser
• is a great choice for family weeknight dinners, barbecues, potlucks, and parties.
• and all the flavors of this salad just meld so well together, plus it has fall and winter written all over it.

You may not think of adding butternut squash to your salad but it really just works, especially when you add it to a spinach salad along with toasted pecans, pomegranate arils, and cranberries.

Then you coat all of that with a pomegranate vinaigrette and incredible things just happen! I’m telling you I just can’t get enough of this salad!

Basic Ingredients, Variations, and Substitutions

Butternut squash. This is the hero of this salad. You can substitute it with roasted sweet potatoes.

Greens. I have used spinach here but you can use kale, chard, or spring mix too.

Nuts. I love adding a nutty, crunchy element to any salad recipe, and pecans are excellent. Many types of nuts will work here. Use almonds, peanuts, walnuts, pine nuts, or pistachios instead of pecans.

Dried fruit. I have used dried cranberries. Dried cranberries work great in this recipe, and so do dried cherries, raisins, or dried blueberries.

Fresh Fruit.  I have used Pomegranate seeds. They add a fun pop of pink and juicy, bursty bites and works beautifully here, but you can go with apples and/or pears.

Salad dressing. Lets talk about this in detail.

Pomegranate Vinaigrette 

The key to a good salad is the dressing. Of course fresh produce with a combined mix of textures too but the dressing makes or breaks the salads.

This Homemade Pomegranate Vinaigrette recipe is the perfect way to dress up y winter salads! This pomegranate salad dressing is made in less than 5 minutes with healthy ingredients – including whole pomegranate seeds. It’s refined sugar-free, paleo, vegan, gluten-free, and dairy-free.

For the dressing, you will need

Pomegranate aerials – You can use pomegranate juice to make this recipe, and then there would be no blending required. However, I love the nutrients added from using whole seeds!

Maple syrup – The maple flavor really adds to the fall/winter taste of this dressing, however, you can substitute honey with great results.

Balsamic vinegar – You can use white balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar too.

Olive oil – Any neutral oil works well in this recipe. I recommend avocado oil or canola oil if you don’t have olive oil.

Grated garlic – a little bit of garlic adds lots of flavors.

Dijon mustard – you can use any of your favorite mustard, but please don’t leave it out. The mustard acts as an emulsifier and keeps the dressing from separating!

Salt and pepper

You can also use an orange vinaigrette, lime dressing, Balsamic vinaigrette, or any lighter version salad dressing of your choice.

Why should you make salad dressings at home?

Salad dressing is a condiment that I always make at home because it’s easy and so much healthier than store-bought varieties. You exactly know what is in yours.

This Pomegranate Vinaigrette is packed full of nutrition, which adds health benefits to this hearty winter salad.

How to store this Pomegranate Vinaigrette?

If you don’t plan on using the pomegranate dressing right away, or have leftovers, store it in an airtight container with a lid in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. I don’t recommend freezing this recipe.

How can I prep for this salad in advance?

This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled if you’re serving it for a crowd. Just be sure to let the squash cool a bit before adding them to the salad so they don’t just wilt the spinach.

And for make-ahead, you can do the vinaigrette 2 days in advance and just store it in the fridge.

You can also peel, seed, and dice the squash a few days in advance then just store it in a gallon-size resealable bag in the fridge and roast it the day you’ll be serving it. Then, of course, the pomegranate can be seeded a few days ahead of time too.

How to make this salad with homemade dressing? Step by step process –

Step 1  – Roast butternut Squash

Using a vegetable peeler, peel your butternut squash.

Take a sharp knife and cut the butternut squash in half. Remove all of the seeds from the inside. Peel the skin and cut it into bite-sized cubes.

Now take a cookie pan sheet and place the butternut squash pieces.

Oil them up with some extra virgin olive oil and season it with salt and pepper. Mix well.

Now roast them in a preheated oven at @425 degrees F. for about 20 minutes.

Toss the butternut squash cubes halfway through the bake time so that everything bakes evenly and the edges of your roasted butternut squash are golden brown and a bit crispy.

Once cooked, remove from the oven and set aside.

Step – 2 Making Pomegranate salad dressing

Take pomegranate seeds in a blender. Add water and blend it until smooth.

Strain the juice with a fine strainer to get rid of seeds. You can skip this step too or use readymade POM juice. Keep this aside.

Now take a clean salad dressing bottle or mason jar, add olive oil, garlic, dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, maple syrup, and pomegranate juice.

Cover the jar with a secure lid. Shake vigorously till well combined. Keep it aside.

Step – 3 combining everything

Take a big bowl, add chopped spinach, roasted squash, pecans, cranberries, onion, and pomegranate. Mix them well.

Now top with pomegranate vinaigrette as much as you like and toss. (store the dressing in the fridge if any remaining)

Enjoy Roasted Butternut squash spinach salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette!

Take your side dish game up a notch this holiday season with this amazing Butternut squash spinach salad! Everyone will want to know your recipe after you serve this holiday salad at a party.

More Salad Recipes

Roasted Butternut Squash Quinoa Salad

Balela Salad | Mediterranean chickpea salad recipe

Wild Rice Salad

Southwest Salad

Roasted Veggie Salad with Avocado Dressing

Roasted Veggie Salad with Avocado Dressing

Warm Regards,

Dhwani.