Kale Salad with Wild Rice and Butternut Squash

This filling kale salad with heat wild rice and roasted butternut squash, toasted pecans, goat cheese, and sweet-tart dried cranberries is dressed with an apple cider and maple dressing stuffed with fall flavors.

Kale Salad with Wild Rice, Butternut Squash, and Goat Cheese prep foodiecrush.com

Fall is the opportune time for transitioning from the lighter-flavored salads of summer season to hearty salads with mega endurance that retains you satiated all day. Like my spinach salad with hot bacon dressing and spicy roasted chickpeas, and my chopped Mexican kale salad, this kale salad with wild rice, roasted butternut squash, and goat cheese is a lofty salad with plenty of textures and large flavors.

Lacinato kale (aka dinosaur kale) is sliced into ribbons with shallots after which massaged with a candy and tangy apple cider and maple dressing. All of it will get tossed with nutty wild rice, candy caramelized roasted butternut squash, tart-dried cranberries, earthy thyme, crunchy toasted pecans, and creamy goat cheese. It’s so satisfying and excellent as a trendy facet dish or mouthful essential meal, wholesome and bursting with vibrant colour and texture.

Kale Salad with Butternut Squash and Wild Rice ingredients foodiecrush.com

What’s In This Kale Salad

This heat kale salad is bursting with fall components. Right here’s what you’ll have to make it:

Butternut squash
Further-virgin olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly floor black pepper
Lacinato kale
Shallot
Wild rice
Toasted pecans
Dried cranberries
Goat cheese
Apple cider vinegar
Maple syrup
Grainy mustard
Recent thyme

Make the Apple Cider and Maple Dressing

Whisk the vinegar, mustard, and maple syrup in a small bowl (or simply add to a jar). Slowly drizzle within the olive oil, whisking (or shaking) to emulsify. Season with salt and pepper.

kale and onions mellowing in dressing foodiecrush.com

The best way to Make This Kale Salad

In the event you’ve prepped the hefty components forward of time, this salad comes collectively rapidly. If making it on the fly, it nonetheless takes just below half-hour to toss collectively.

Cook dinner the wild rice and toast the pecans. Cook dinner the wild rice whereas toasting the pecans in a skillet, conserving a watch out so that they don’t burn. You’ll be able to add each components heat to the salad, or set them apart to chill earlier than tossing.

In the meantime, roast the butternut squash. Follow the directions for roasted butternut squash here, or hold studying…Preheat the oven to 425°F. Add squash to a big sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil then season with salt and pepper. Use your palms to toss the squash so it’s evenly coated, and prepare in an excellent layer. Place within the oven to roast for about 15-20 minutes, or till squash is golden brown and bottoms are caramelized.

Therapeutic massage the kale and assemble the salad. Soften the kale by massaging it with some cider dressing whereas including the sliced shallots to mellow their warmth. Add the remaining salad components to the bowl and toss to coat with 2-3 tablespoons extra dressing, including extra if wanted.

Substitutions and Additions

Substitute roasted walnuts or pepitas for the pecans
As a result of it has a deeper taste, I want lacinato kale, however curly kale works as properly
Strive cooked quinoa or orzo instead of the wild rice
You would use aged white cheddar, blue cheese, or creamy gorgonzola as a substitute of goat cheese
Strive dried cherries in lieu of cranberries
For added protein, baked chicken or roasted chicken could be a scrumptious addition

Kale Salad with Wild Rice, Butternut Squash, and Goat Cheese in bowl foodiecrush.com

What to Serve with This Kale Salad

I like consuming this salad as a essential course as a result of although it’s vegetarian, it’s very hearty. Nevertheless, for those who needed to take pleasure in it as a facet, that’s an incredible possibility as properly. Right here’s what I’d serve with it:

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Kale Salad with Wild Rice and Roasted Butternut Squash

Course Essential Course, Salad

Delicacies American

Key phrase kale salad

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook dinner Time 15 minutes

Complete Time 30 minutes

Servings 8

Energy 262kcal

Elements

For the Salad

2 cups butternut squash , (from a 2 pound butternut squash), peeled, seeded, and lower into 1-inch cubes
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly floor black pepper
2 bunches lacinato kale , (about 8 cups), washed, stemmed, and lower into ribbons
2 tablespoons minced shallot , from 1 shallot
1 cup raw wild rice
⅓ cup toasted pecan halves
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup goat cheese , crumbled

Apple Cider and Maple Dressing

4 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons complete grain/stone floor mustard
2 tablespoons maple syrup
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons contemporary thyme , minced
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly floor black pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Add squash to a big sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Use your palms to toss the squash so it’s evenly coated, arranging in an excellent layer. Place within the oven to roast for about 15-20 minutes, or till squash is golden brown and bottoms are caramelized.
Whereas the squash roasts, prepare dinner the wild rice in response to the bundle instructions. Toast the pecans in a skillet over medium warmth till aromatic and frivolously browned, about 5 minutes. Put aside.
Make the dressing by whisking the vinegar, mustard, and maple syrup in a small bowl (or add to a jar with a fitte lid.) Slowly drizzle within the olive oil, whisking (or shaking) to emulsify. Season with salt and pepper. In the event you prefer it extra on the sweeter facet, add extra maple syrup to style.
Add the kale and shallot to a big bowl and therapeutic massage it with a tablespoon of the cider dressing till the leaves start to tenderize and soften. Add the remaining salad components to the bowl and toss to coat with 2-3 extra tablespoons or so of the dressing, including extra if wanted. This salad is greatest served the day of creating however whereas not as contemporary tasting, could be refrigerated in a single day.

Diet

Extra Fall Salads to Strive

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