This beautiful Butternut Squash salad with Kale and Cranberries is the perfect Thanksgiving salad. It's not heavy in ingredients, it compliments the other side dishes on the Thanksgiving table, it's easy to prepare and tastes delicious:).
2-4 garlic clovesI ended up using 1 jumbo clove as it's equivalent to 3-4 small ones.
1.5lemons squeeze them and zest half a lemon
salt / pepper add to taste
2tbspsmaple syrup
Instructions
Salad
Microwave the frozen butternut squash for about 10 minutes. You can roast it too but if preparing this salad for Thanksgiving it's better not to occupy the oven with this:). Either way, once done let butternut squash cool down to room temperature.
Wash baby kale and use a salad spinner to dry. If already pre-washed, just place kale on the salad platter.
Add butternut squash cubes over kale. Top with cranberries and walnuts.
Dressing
Add olive oil in a mason jar. Squeeze 1.5 lemons and add it in. Zest half a lemon over the oil and lemon juice.
Using a food processor chop the shallot and garlic. You can also chop them yourself real fine. Add the finely chopped shallot and garlic to the mason jar. Pour about 2 tbsps of maple syrup to jar. Add salt and freshly cracked pepper as desired. Cover the jar, shake to mix and dressing is ready.
Serve dressing over salad and toss it or leave the dressing on the table in a a nice serving bowl for everyone to add on top of the salad as needed. Enjoy your dinner:)
Video
Notes
Feel free to add more ingredients to the salad as desired. Other options would be arugula, radishes, even fruits like apples.