Harvest Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette

This Harvest Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette is really easy to make, and would be a great side or lunch salad or the perfect addition to your Thanksgiving menu! With butternut squash, pomegranate seeds, walnuts, and spinach, it is full of protein, healthy omega fats, fiber, and antioxidants. 

Harvest Salad

Cook's notes: A time saver for this recipe is purchasing pre-chopped butternut squash. I seeded a pomegranate (mainly because the store was out of a package of pomegranate seeds) but was quite disappointed. The pomegranate seeds were not ripe enough so the color was more pink than red. I wanted my photo to look more like this.

I added a sweet touch to the salad with sliced pears. Making your own dressing is easy and has less preservatives. But two prepared dressings that work well with the salad are  

Wishbone Light Balsamic and Basil Vinaigrette or Maple Grove Farms of Vermont  Fat free Cranberry Balsamic Dressing

Recipe adapted from greatfoodslifestyle.com  Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1 small bag of baby spinach leaves
• 2-3 cups butternut squash cubes 
• 3 TB. pomegranate seeds
• 1/2 cup glazed walnuts or glazed almonds
• 1 cup diced pears 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a rimmed cookie sheet with parchment paper. Spread cubed butternut squash on pan. Drizzle with olive oil or Blood Orange Olive Oil and balsamic vinegar. Roast until tender about 20 minutes.
• Mix spinach leaves, butternut squash and diced pears. Sprinkle in pomegranate seeds and walnuts. 

Let festive Pomegranate Vinaigrette dress your favorite salad greens. Not only does the vinaigrette lend seasonal color, it's also made with flavorful, antioxidant-rich pomegranate juice.
Pomegranate Vinaigrette
Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups pomegranate juice 
• 1/3 cup olive oil 
• 5 tsp. honey 
• 1 TB. white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp.Dijon mustard 
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper 
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Bring pomegranate juice to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat; reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes or until reduced to 1/4 cup. Transfer to a small bowl. Cool completely (about 30 minutes). 
• Whisk in olive oil, honey, vinegar, mustard, pepper, and salt.