Fall is one of T.W.O.’s favorite seasons because of the weather and the harvest foods!  To kick off the season, T.W.O. decided to make a dish with butternut squash. The weather has been quite warm, so a fresh salad with all the Fall ingredients was put on the T.W.O. menu.

Ingredients

Roasted Butternut Squash:

-Butternut Squash
-Olive Oil
-Cinnamon
-Nutmeg
-Salt and Pepper

 For the Salad:

-Roasted butternut squash
-Spinach
-Apple (Honeycrisp or Granny Smith)
– Cucumber
-Crimini mushrooms
-Dried Cranberries
-Pepitas
-Goat Cheese

 For the Dressing:

-1/4 cup olive oil
-3/4 cup Balsamic vinegar
-2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
-1 ½ Tablespoons Greek yogurt
-I tablespoon honey
-Cinnamon
-Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 415°. Cut butternut squash in half and remove seeds. Place butternut squash on a foil-lined cookie sheet and brush the squash with olive oil. Next, season the squash with salt, pepper, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Put the squash into oven and roast for 45 minutes to one hour.

For the dressing, mix together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, yogurt, honey, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Put the dressing in the refrigerator to chill. Ten minutes before the butternut squash is ready, prepare salad.  Dice apple, mushrooms, and cucumber and place on platted spinach. Next, add your cranberries, pepitas and crumbled goat cheese.

When the squash is done, take out of oven and let sit for 3-5 minutes to cool. Cut the squash into cubes (removing the skin) and put on salad. Drizzle the dressing over salad and mix.  Now it’s time to enjoy this gastronomical, fall inspired salad!