By Sophie Tuan
Salad. Full of oily lettuce and wilted leaves, I can only stomach the leafy green dish a couple of times a year. The traditional salad is too bland, too unfilling, and too healthy. That’s why my favorite salad is, in fact, not a real salad. Instead of lettuce, we have bread drizzled with olive oil and instead of icky raw toppings we have delectable soft roasted root vegetables all topped with an emulsified maple dijon vinaigrette.
Ingredients
*Tips: double the recipe so you can share with all your friends and family
Roasted vegetables:
2lb cubed squash *buy pre-cut squash
1 yam peeled and cut into ½” cubes
1 lb Brussel sprouts cut in half
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 loaf rosemary bread *chop into small bite-sized pieces
1 tsp dried thyme
½ red onion, thinly sliced
1 bunch parsley, leaves roughly chopped
1 apple, cut into matchsticks
Maple balsamic vinaigrette
1/4 cup balsamic
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tbsp dijon
2 tsp shallot
1 1/4 cup canola/olive
salt & pepper to taste
*Cut the vegetables and bread first, then cut toppings while squash, yam and brussel sprouts are in the oven. Make the dressing last and put on salad 30 minutes before serving!
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425F. Toss squash, yam, and brussels sprouts with 3-4 tbsp oil, salt and pepper. Scatter in a single layer on 1-2 baking sheets and roast until tender and lightly browned, 30-40 minutes, flipping once during roasting. *if doubling the recipe double the roasting time (check periodically every 5-10 min)
- Toss the bread cubes with another 1-2 tbsp olive oil, thyme, salt + pepper and scatter on a second baking sheet. In the final 10 minutes of vegetable roasting add the bread cubes to the oven and toast until crunchy and lightly browned, 10-12 minutes, tossing once during roasting. Remove and set aside to cool while you prepare the rest of the salad. *allow vegetables the full baking time and then add bread on top for an additional 15 min
- Assemble the salad by tossing the squash, yam, brussel sprouts, bread cubes, onion, parsley, apple, and dressing.
*to properly emulsify the dressing add oil in slowly and mix vigorously OR add all the ingredients together and use an immersion blender