Festive Kale Salad, Butternut Squash, Honey Rosemary Vinaigrette

This Festive Kale Salad with Butternut Squash and Honey Rosemary Vinaigrette is so beautiful. 

You can absolutely trust my culinary view and opinion, as I only collaborate with brands and products I love, and I’m happy to share these products with you. I made this salad last year for Spectrum Foods and am republishing because it’s so beautiful for the holidays.

I have made this colorful, vibrant Festive Kale Salad most recently for a dinner party. Everyone loved it, but I especially received compliments on the vinaigrette made with Spectrum® Rosemary Olive Oil, honey and apple cider vinegar.

Spectrum® has been producing high quality olive oils for thirty years and has recently come up with a culinary line of infused olive oils such as rosemary, cayenne, garlic and chili sesame and more.  These can be used for dressings, sauces, a light sauté and as finishing oils.

I’ve enjoyed many Spectrum® products while developing recipes, as they make oils for various cooking needs, including more than 30 varieties of seed, nut and plant oils, including coconut oil, apple cider vinegar (which I used here), and avocado oil. I also use the Spectrum® olive oil baking spray.

The extra virgin olive oils come from Spain and Tunisia, each estate grown and produced in small batches, using no chemicals and expeller pressed to ensure the highest quality.

I hope you know by now that Spinach Tiger strives to bring you the freshest food using ingredients that are better for you and this is why I stand by the Spectrum® brand. I use organic ingredients as much as possible, so naturally want to use an organic olive oil.

I can feel confident that this gorgeous salad is getting adorned with an olive oil I can trust.

Festive Kale Salad with Honey Rosemary Vinaigrette Screams Merry, Happy, Joyful Food

There is so much beauty in this festive kale salad which is packed with various textures, sweet, salty and holiday flavors. It is the one salad you can take to a gathering to wow the guests or make a splash at your next dinner party.

There are a lot of components to this salad, such as apples, figs, oranges, and pomegranates, because these come to mind during the holidays and are readily available. This can be the “fruit you have on hand salad” but don’t leave out the butternut squash, which we’ve made the star of the show. You can switch apples for pears or use both. You can also add in dried cranberries for pomegranates.

Roasting Butternut Squash for the Festive Kale Salad

Butternut Squash often perplexes cooks, because it’s difficult to cut into. I suggest microwaving for two to three minutes to slightly soften, and peel with a potato peeler. Once peeled, slicing into discs is fairly easy. The smaller end will have the most seeds, but you should be able to get a good amount of discs without seeds. Roast these for twenty minutes, brushing lightly with oil. Once cooled, you can use a cookie cutter to cut them into stars.

Honey Rosemary Vinaigrette with Spectrum® Organic Rosemary Olive Oil

Just as Spectrum® tests their oils with their own internal quality team to meet high standards for any and all type of cooking, I tested this dressing at least three times to get the right oil with the right vinegar to make sure your salad will taste its best.

We all agreed that for this Festive Kale salad, the Organic Rosemary Olive Oil won hands down for bringing a winter holiday flavor profile, and it pairs perfectly with Spectrum’s apple cider vinegar.  The rosemary flavor is well balanced and does not overpower the greens, yet delivers a nice herbal lift.

I will be making a second recipe, a Spicy Italian Soup with Sausage using Spectrum^® Extra Virgin Cayenne Olive Oil. You will want to come back for that one. Do please follow me on Instagram as many of my process pictures end on stories.

Much love during the upcoming happiest time of the year.

This Honey Rosemary Vinaigrette would be a great choice for any of these additional kale salads from Spinach Tiger.

Tuscan Kale Salad

Autumn Potluck Kale Salad

Chopped Kale Salad with Toasted Almonds

More Butternut Squash Recipes

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut Squash with Brussels Sprouts

Butternut Squash Risotto

Butternut Squash Stacks with Crispy Quinoa Pancake

Butternut Squash Cocktail

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Festive Kale Salad with Butternut Squash, Honey Rosemary Vinaigrette

Festive Kale sale with Butternut Squash, Figs, Prosciutto, Pomegranate, Nut with a Rosemary Olive Oil Vinaigrette.

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time40 minutes mins

Course: Salad

Cuisine: American

Servings: 6

Author: Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 2 bunches lacinato kale see notes
• 1 to 2 cups or handfuls arugula
• 1/2 navel orange peeled
• 1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
• 4 figs cut in halves or quarters
• 6 slices proscuitto sliced thinly, torn into pieces
• 1 medium sized butternut squash
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 1 to 2 gala apples or mix of apple and pear
• Honey Rosemary Vinaigrette
• 3 to 6 tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 6 tablespoons Spectrum® Rosemary Olive Oil

Instructions

• Microwave butternut squash for 2 to 3 minutes to slightly soften.
• Peel butternut squash with a potato peeler. Cut into 1/2 inch discs crosswise and remove seeds.
• Brush lightly with olive oil and roast at 400 degrees F. for 20 to 30 minutes until softened.Turn over at 15 minutes.
• Roast walnuts for 4 to 5 minutes at 400 degrees F.
• Cool Squash. Then cut into stars with cookie cutter. There will be some left over you can use for another recipe or add into the salad.
• Roast
• Peel orange, cut into bite sized pieces, making sure to remove pith.
• Slice apple and or pears with skin on, thinly or if you prefer, you can dice.
• Remove arils from pomegranate.
• Chop kale into small bite sized pieces, less an inch.
• Toss kale with vinaigrette, just enough to wet leaves.
• You can add more later if needed. (recipe below). Let kale sit in vinaigrette for 20 minutes if you have time.
• Season with salt and pepper.
• Add arugula to the kale.
• Arrange on large platter or large bowl.
• Add, oranges, sliced apples. Toss until combined. You may leave some sliced fruit on side if serving at party. You can choose to keep figs and prosciutto on side of platter, instead of in the salad.
• When ready to serve, add prosciutto and figs.
• Top with walnuts, pomegranate seeds.
• Top with butternut squash.
• Season again with sea salt and black pepper.
• Taste to see if you need to add more vinaigrette.
• Instructions for Vinaigrette
• Mix vinegar with honey until well incorporated. I do this in a jar.
• Add olive oll. Mix well.
• Taste for acid. You may need to add more vinegar if not acidic enough or more olive oil. This will depend on your own taste. We like kale salad with a lot of acid. Add salt and pepper before you add more vinegar, as that affects flavor.

Notes

Lacinato kale also known as dinosaur kale or Tuscan kale is the long leaves with thick ribs. Remove the ribs before chopping. You can use a curly kale, but I always prefer this kale as a better option for salads.

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