Squash & Vinaigrette Salad

Jamie cutting up the shallots, to be cooked down with the shitake mushrooms.

Jamie sautéing the shallots with the shitake mushrooms.

Adding the roasted acorn squash and toasted pecans together.

Next, add in the sautéed shallots and shitake mushrooms.

Finally, drizzle the entire dish with pumpkin vinaigrette, and stir well to combine.

The finished product! Sweet, umami, tangy, and crunchy!

This is a Pimento & Prose original recipe from scratch! We needed a dish to take with us to a small get together, and were inspired by a new pumpkin vinaigrette we had recently purchased from the Oil & Vinegar store in downtown Greenville. This Squash & Vinaigrette Salad is simple side dish, and is the perfect mix of sweet, tangy, umami, soft, and crunchy! Less than ten ingredients, and ready in under an hour.

Squash & Vinaigrette Salad

Servings 6 people

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Ingredients

• 4 Acorn squash
• 2 Shallots
• 4 oz Package of shitake mushrooms
• 4 floz Pumpkin vinaigrette (or other sweeter/fruit-based vinaigrette)
• 0.25 cup Olive oil, plus drizzle for sautéing
• 0.25 cup Pecans
• 2 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Pepper

Instructions

• Start by preheating your oven to 350*F.
• Wash and chop the acorn squash in half lengthways, scooping out the middle with the seeds and throwing that out. Rub the squash halves with olive oil, salt, and pepper, before placing face-down on a baking tray. Bake for 35 minutes or until a knife run through a squash is soft, but not mushy (think almost al dente consistency, some resistance but mostly soft).
• Once the squash has cooled down slightly (about 5-10 mins, until it's cool enough to touch), use a sharp paring knife to carefully remove the skins and stems from the outside of the squash. Chop into a medium sized dice and place in a large bowl. If you’d like, lightly toast the roughly chopped pecans in a dry pan for 2-3 minutes before combining. If not, add in your roughly chopped pecans now.
• Next, wash and finely chop the shallots and mushrooms, sautéing in a pan with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper on medium heat for about 10 minutes, until mushrooms are soft and shallots are fragrant. Add directly to the bowl with squash and pecans.
• To finish off the dish, drizzle about 4 fl. oz. of the pumpkin vinaigrette (or another of your favorite fruit-based vinaigrettes) and stir to coat all ingredients with it, tasting after stirring to decide if it needs more or not.
• This side dish can immediately be served warm, or cold, and keeps really well in a zip lock bag or Tupperware in the fridge, up to 5-7 days.

Course: Soups, Sides, & Breads