I’ve made this Maple Roasted Pumpkin Salad so many times over the last 13 years! It’s a favorite recipe originally created by Martha Stewart’s team. And it’s such a nice salad to make in the fall when you can easily find sugar pie pumpkins! The pumpkin is roasted with maple syrup, and it becomes caramelized and so delicious. This salad has few ingredients, but it all comes together so well to offer an amazing addition to your meal.
How to make Maple Roasted Pumpkin Salad:
The first thing you need to do is roast the pumpkin. The pumpkin called for in the recipe isn’t a big Halloween pumpkin that you use for carving. It’s a little sugar pumpkin, also known as a pie pumpkin. You’ll peel the pumpkin, scoop and discard the seeds and then chop the pumpkin into small pieces. The pumpkin is tossed with olive oil, garlic cloves, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper. It’s roasted for about 30 minutes, then you’ll drizzle on some maple syrup and let it roast some more to caramelize the pumpkin.
The dressing is a mix of roasted garlic, lime juice, Dijon mustard, maple syrup, olive oil, salt and pepper. It’s tossed with arugula in your salad bowl.
Then the roasted pumpkin and feta cheese are added in. Roasted pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds) are added in too. If you buy pepitas that are not already toasted, you will want to toast them yourself. I include instructions in the recipe below for how to toast the pepitas.
Substitution suggestions:
You can use whatever greens appeal to you. The arugula is really good, but you might like to use baby greens or chopped red or green lettuce. If you can’t find or don’t want to use pepitas, use toasted pecans instead. Roasted pumpkin is really delicious, but you can always substitute butternut squash for the pumpkin.
If you’re thinking this Maple Roasted Pumpkin Salad might be a good addition to your Thanksgiving table, you’re so right. You can make everything ahead… caramelized pumpkin, toasted seeds and dressing- just refrigerate it all and then toss it together right before Thanksgiving dinner.
Here are a few more fall salad recipes you might like to try:
Autumn Salad with Maple Cider Vinaigrette Roasted Butternut Squash and Wild Rice Salad Kale Salad with Butternut Squash Apple- Walnut Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette Roasted Sweet Potato Salad Mixed Green Salad with Apple Cider Vinaigrette Apple and Brussels Sprouts Slaw Pear, Walnut and Blue Cheese Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette
