Roasted Pumpkin Salad with Kale and Pecans

This roasted Pumpkin Salad with kale, apples, and black rice is topped with maple-glazed pecans, dried cranberries, and a scrumptious fall-inspired vinaigrette. Vegan and Gluten-free!

Why You’ll Love This Pumpkin Salad

Here’s a beautiful Pumpkin Salad recipe that would be a delicious addition to your holiday table or simply served up as a healthy vegan dinner. Roasted pumpkin, black rice, apples, and kale are tossed in the most delicious dressing – and topped with maple glazed pecans. Add dried cranberries or currants if you’d like.

One reader, Rebecca, says: “THIS recipe is incredible. I made our whole Thanksgiving feast from Feasting at Home recipes and asked everyone their favorite dish and this was the winner for each person! It was my first time roasting pumpkin and I cannot believe I don’t cook it more. It’s absolutely delicious. Thank you for introducing it to me! ” ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐️

Hearty and filling, this could also work as a vegan main dish. For extra richness feel free to add crumbled goat cheese, or try farmer’s cheese. A very beautiful autumnal salad!

Here I’ve used little sugar pumpkins, but if you can’t find them, feel free to use delicata squash, butternut squash or acorn squash!

What are Sugar Pumpkins?

Sugar Pumpkins are little orange pumpkin-like winter squash also called “pie pumpkins” or “sweet pumpkins” that have a beautifully creamy, orange, sweet flesh when roasted. You can even eat the skin!

They’re perfect for roasting, making salads or soups, or even making homemade pumpkin puree for pies- not just for their sweetness and flavor, but because of their texture- so creamy vs. stringy!

Pumpkin Salad Ingredients

• Sugar pumpkins: Or use delicata squash, butternut squash, or acorn squash.
• Kale: Use baby kale or substitute with arugula.
• Apple: I love using honey crisp apples for this salad. You could try persimmon as a substitute.
• Black rice: Cooked black rice or sub with wild rice or other grains like farro, quinoa, or freekeh.
• Dried cranberries: Dried currants also work!
• Sliced green onion: Adds a hint of sharp, aromatic flavor that balances the sweetness in the salad.
• Maple Glazed Pecans: To make them, you’ll need pecans, maple syrup, salt, and pepper. You’ll only use half for the salad.
• Maple Vinaigrette: Made with olive oil, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, salt, pepper, and ground allspice.

Pumpkin SAlad Variations

• Squash: You can use any type of fall squash for this salad.
• Greens: Instead of baby kale, arugula is a nice choice. Baby spinach works, too!
• Grains: Any cooked grain works well, like wild rice, farro, quinoa, or freekeh.
• Toppings: Persimmon, dried currants, goat cheese or farmer’s cheese (feta cheese would be too salty), walnuts, or pine nuts are more tasty toppings ideas for this salad.

Serving SUggestions

Serve this Pumpkin Salad as a starter or side dish to any of our vegetarian Thanksgiving recipes, or along with our other favorite Thanksgiving sides, or enjoy it as a light, yet satisfying main dish on a weeknight. It’s also really nice when paired with Turkey Rice Soup or Turkey Minestrone Soup—using up Thanksgiving leftovers!

Meal Prep & Storage

You can make the maple-glazed pecans and maple vinaigrette a day or two ahead of time. If you plan to store leftovers, keep the salad and dressing separate to avoid wilting the greens. Store separately, the salad will keep for 2-3 days.

On the home front: For the past week, we’ve been out of power along with thousands of others here in Spokane, after a huge wind storm blew down hundreds of old trees, taking the power lines down with them. With frigid temperatures at night, it has been challenging trying to keep our house warm so the pipes and pets don’t freeze.

For the first day or two it felt like camping –  ha! Playing games by candlelight, having fires, listening to the battery-powered radio and reading with a headlamp. Fun in a way, exciting!

But as the days wore on, I awoke this morning with an aching head and scratchy throat, missing my mother. With Thanksgiving only two days away and a houseful of guests planning to come over, I felt quite glum. The opposite of thankful.   

At least we didn’t have a tree crash into our living room like our neighbors, my husband kept reminding me. At least we weren’t Syrian refugees fleeing for our lives, another friend piped up. Yep, true, it can always be worse.

But I don’t want to feel gratitude because we fared better, compared to others, or because it could be worse. I don’t want to feel it because I would feel guilty if I didn’t, or because my rational brain (or Oprah) tells me I should.

I want to feel it, because I feel it.

So I sit here. I stir the fire. I let my brain calm and let my heart open… and wait. Nothing. And wait. And wait…

And then something shifts, a feeling of acceptance, ever so brief. A feeling that no matter how difficult our lives can be at times, I’m honored to be alive and experience all of it. Even the hard stuff. Which in perspective, turns out is not really that hard.

Because in some way, it’s all perfect. 

I want to hang on to this feeling forever… but it is fleeting.

There seems to be a deeper level of gratefulness that we can tap into. One that is constant and unconditional regardless of external circumstances.

I haven’t evolved far enough as a human to be able to remain tethered to this place, but I can sense its presence under the surface and dip into it every now and again, and it feels transformative. I wonder how my life would change if I could feel it daily.

I wonder how this world would change if we could all feel it.

Wherever Thanksgiving finds us this year, may we find gratitude, even amidst the chaos, if only for a brief and sparkling moment. May it seep into our bones and infuse our day… and infuse those around us.

Happy Thanksgiving friends. Love and hugs.

Sylvia

More Favorite Fall Salads

Pear Salad with Vanilla Fig Dressing

Fennel Orange Salad

Fig Salad with Arugula & Pecans

Farro Salad with Kale, Pomegranate Seeds and Almonds

White Cheddar Apple Salad

Sweet Potato Chickpea Salad

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