This salad is full of flavour and texture thanks to the creamy dressing, crunchy almonds, sweet pumpkin and fresh spinach. The perfect prep ahead work salad. Just don’t toss it all together until you’re ready to eat.

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted a salad recipe… well for me anyway. I think I was posting 1 a week at one point in summer. Autumn and winter aren’t my favourite salad eating months. But that doesn’t mean I’m not still eating them! It’s just I need some soup time too.

When I am eating salads in the cooler months they tend to be a warm salad sort of thing. Or salad’s luke this that are full of autumn vegetables and colours.

The best part about this salad is definitely dressing those chickpeas in the tahini dressing. And then not mixing it all up until your ready to serve. This way you can have your salad already to toss and not have to take the dressing in a separate container if it’s going to be a work affair. The legumes also help make it really filling.

Ingredients

1/2 butternut pumpkin

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

2 whole cloves garlic

salt and pepper

1 Tbs olive oil for roasting

1/4 cup tahini

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup water

1 Tbs olive oil

salt

pepper

2 x 400g cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

250g baby spinach leaves

1/3 cup finely chopped spring onion

1/2 cup roughly chopped almonds

Directions

Preheat oven to 180. Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper. Remove the skin and seeds from the butternut and cut 2-3mm thick slices. You should have thin semi-circles. Cut these in half. Lay in a single layer on your prepared trays. Sprinkle with the cumin, paprika a generous sprinkle each of salat and pepper and drizzle over the olive oil. Add the garlic. Roast for 30 minutes, keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t burn. You don’t have to turn them.

Make the dressing by stirring together the tahini, olive oil, lemon juice and then add the water in a steady stream as you stir. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once cooked squeeze in the roasted garlic and stir vigorously.

Place chickpeas in a medium bowl and add the dressing, toss to coat.

To serve, arrange chickpeas, pumpkin, spinach, spring onion and almonds in a large bowl. When ready to eat toss together the ingredients. You may need an extra drizzle of olive oil if you’ve made everything hours in advance.

HH. x