In praise of a simple salad - roast pumpkin

Hi Leanne here. This week it’s my turn to share a salad recipe. This pumpkin salad is my go-to when I am doing more than a chunky Greek salad - which is what we eat pretty much every night in summer (something like this).

It is great with a roast or cold meat, enough just by itself, and is super to take to someone else’s house as it’s a bit different from the usual leafy green salad. And it’s easy, lazy, tasty and hearty.

In a nutshell you just slice up pumpkin and onion and roast them in the oven for 40 minutes. Then fry some pine nuts, sprinkle some herbs and make a dressing. Done.

This recipe comes from Yotam Ottolenghi (my most favourite modern cook). Here are the details.

Ingredients

• 1 large butternut pumpkin (around 1.1kg), cut into 2cm x 6cm wedges

• 2 red onions, cut into 3cm wedges

• 50ml olive oil

• Salt and pepper

• 3½ tbsp tahini paste (or hommus works too)

• 1½ tbsp lemon juice

• 3 tbsp water

• 1 small garlic clove, crushed

• 30g pine nuts

• 1 tbsp za'atar (you can buy this spice mix that includes oregano or marjoram, sesame seeds and sumac from Oasis, Psarakos etc).

• 1 tbsp roughly chopped parsley

Method

• Heat the oven to 220C. Toss the butternut and onions in oil and salt and pepper and spread, skin down, on a baking tray, baking for 40 minutes until the vegetables have taken on some colour and are cooked through. Keep an eye on the onions: they may cook faster than the pumpkin. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

• Mix the tahini, lemon juice, water, garlic and a quarter-teaspoon of salt. Whisk to the consistency of honey, adding more water or tahini as necessary.

• Fry the pine nuts in some oil with half a teaspoon of salt, cook for two minutes, stirring, until the nuts are golden brown.

• To serve, spread the vegetables on a platter and drizzle over the sauce. Scatter the pine nuts and oil on top, followed by the za'atar and parsley.

If you’ve got a great salad recipe to share we’d love to publish it. Just send us a paragraph or two about why you love it and a link to the recipe and we’ll do the rest!