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This salad is excellent! I am back to make it a second time for Thanksgiving. I did add goat cheese the first time and it was great!
Sarah
This recipe is sponsored by ALDI
This stunning, fallish, kind of addicting salad goes out to all the people who love to make vegetables taste cozy.
Without fail, I always get asked to bring a salad or vegetable dish to Thanksgiving. And salads at Thanksgiving… well, you know how it is. You really need to make it count, otherwise might as well forget it. It’s hard to compete with mashed potatoes and turkey and all the other yummy regulars.
But this salad is not forgettable. It has all the elements of a winner.
I love this recipe because:
- it’s vegan, so everyone at our table can eat it!
- it’s delicious served cold like a salad or warm like a… warm salad.
- it’s beautiful on a holiday table, and honestly also just beautiful in your lunchbox.
- squash, chickpeas, kale, apples, pepitas, dried cherries and roasted garlic dressing JUST WORK TOGETHER.
I got my ingredients for this salad entirely at ALDI, with special shout outs going to the cute butternut squash, the huge bag of organic kale, and the crispy little pepitas and juicy bites of dried cherries.
I know a lot of you already know this, but ALDI is *the* place for holiday groceries. There are so many organic options (♡) and their prices are SO AFFORDABLE, which works really well when you’re trying to feed about 185 hungry people around the holidays. I love it.
You can click here for a one-stop Instacart grocery list, so all you have to do is schedule delivery and you’re good to go. While you’re there, be sure to use the code ALDIPOY to get $10 off your orders of $35 or more. That code works for first-time Instacart users, and you can use it not once, not twice, but three times!
Okay, here’s how we make this salad.
First: roast the squash, chickpeas and garlic (just wrap it in foil).
Then mash your garlic into a paste and whisk it into dressing.
Then… um, serve it up? Easy and beautiful is how we roll.
Roasted garlicky massaged kale, topped with the squash and chickpeas, and some pretty little apple fans, and dabbles of pepitas and dried cherries, and the final drizzling of roasted garlic dressing over the top. Yeah. Gorgeous.
Goat cheese, Parm, or bacon would be lovely additions, too, but maybe put that on the individual salad plates so our vegans can still be happy.
I really love it when real food is this beautiful, simple, wholesome and amazing on the taste buds.
Fall food is the best food.
Check Out Our Video For How To Make Squash Salad:
Squash Salad with Kale and Roasted Garlic Dressing
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 6 as a side 1x
Description
Squash Salad with Kale and Roasted Garlic Dressing – the BEST Thanksgiving salad. Roasted garlicky kale, squash and chickpeas, crisp apple, dabbles of pepitas and dried cherries, and a drizzle of roasted garlic dressing over the top.
Ingredients
Salad:
- 1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed (about 3 cups)
- 1 can Dakota’s Pride Garbanzo Beans, rinsed and drained
- a drizzle of oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2–3 cloves garlic
- 4–5 cups Simply Nature Organic Chopped Kale
- 1 honeycrisp apple, sliced
- 1/2 cup Southern Grove Pepitas
- 1/2 cup Southern Grove Dried Cherries
Dressing:
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
- black pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon sugar
VERY IMPORTANT: Click here to get ALL of these ingredients delivered via Instacart! And if this is your first time, don’t forget to use the ALDIPOY code for $10 off your order of $35 or more.
Instructions
- Roast: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place squash and chickpeas on a sheet pan. Drizzle with oil, sprinkle with salt. Place garlic cloves in the center of a small piece of foil. Drizzle with oil and fold it up into a little packet. Place the packet on the sheet pan. Roast everything for 30-40 minutes.
- Dressing: Whisk the oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and sugar together. When the sheet pan comes out of the oven, mash up the roasted garlic and add it to the dressing.
- Kale: In a large bowl, drizzle the kale with a little bit of dressing (hello, flavor!). Massage it – as in, just, like, squeeze it – until it’s deep green and the texture has relaxed a little bit. This just makes it more tender and pleasant to eat.
- Salad: Place kale in a large salad bowl. Top with squash and chickpeas. Arrange little fanned-out apple slices on the salad (pretty!). Dot the whole thing with pepitas and dried cherries, and finish with the rest of the dressing. Serve warm or cold! IT’S A BEAUTIFUL MASTERPIECE.
Notes
Make ahead: You could definitely roast the squash, garlic, and chickpeas a day in advance. That being said, the texture of the roasted chickpeas will change from crispy to… less crispy after they’ve been roasted and cooled. I don’t think they taste bad that way! Just different.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Salad
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: squash salad, Thanksgiving salad, Thanksgiving side dish, kale salad
Thank you to ALDI for sponsoring this post!
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of yummy kale recipes. Check it out!
This is fantastic. One of the most delicious salads I’ve ever had. I replaced the sugar with honey and used the juice of 1 lime instead of lemon and it was spectacular.
I have made this salad over a dozen times. Sometimes I forgot to buy chickpeas; still delicious. Sometimes all I had was sweet potatoes; still delicious. This is my FAVORITE salad to bring to potlucks/parties. TY, Lindsay and team.
This was a great meal prep salad for the week’s lunches. Prepped on Sunday, and it keeps well in the fridge (cutting apples fresh each day only). Made a few changes that I think added to the enjoyment: sub maple syrup for sugar, omit cherries based on personal preference for not overly sweet (apple and squash were enough sweetness factor for me), topped with some feta.
I’ve never had roasted chickpeas before, and this was amazing. All of it.
This salad is amazingness!!! I have made it twice. And yesterday shared it with family for the big dinner. It was a hit! Thanks so much for this one.
This salad looks so yummy and I think it is healthy too. Will try to prepare this at home. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe.
We love butternut squash in salads, soups or stews, can’t get enough of them, especially in winter. And hey, who doesn’t like Aldi!
I made this salad last year for Thanksgiving and it was a BIG hit. So delicious, colorful and fully representing the Fall season. Can’t wait to make again this year!
Can you use spinach for this recipe instead of kale?
Yes you can use spinach!
This was so tasty! Not a big kale fan so I subbed spinach + arugula. Kept the dressing separate + was able to have it for healthy lunches all week.
So glad to hear it, Emily!
I just like this dish and i appreciate this
This salad is AMAZING! I have made it several times and it is always sooo good!
So happy to hear this, Pam!
I made this pretty much as described, except with maybe 1 Tablespoon less oil, I blended the salad dressing in a high speed blender, and I added a little more kale at the end when it didn’t look “kale-y” enough to me. It was pretty good, refreshing, lots of different textures. If I made it again, however, I’d roast chickpeas separately – they were a little too tough & chewy after 30 minutes, though the butternut squash was perfect. Also, it was too oily for my tastes, and I didn’t even use all of the dressing. Next time I’ll probably use only 1/4 c oil at most. But it’s beautiful and definitely making it into the rotation!
Thanks for sharing, Molly! 😊
can I use pepper or acorn squash ?
We don’t see why not. Enjoy, Annette!
Just made this salad for a Friendsgiving with minor adaptations (used yams and spinach instead of kale–I just can’t stand the texture!) and boy is it amazing. I made myself a little side dish to taste-test and it was PHENOM. The roasted garlic is amazing. My only tip is to not salt the dressing before adding the garlic, because the garlic really brings out the flavors.
I hope I’m hungry for dinner, because I’ve been eating roast chickpeas like candy for the last twenty minutes!
So happy to hear this, Katie! 🙂
Really delicious and a beautiful salad for Thanksgiving. I used dried cranberries I had on hand, instead of cherries and omitted the chickpeas. All of the flavors blended well together – Thanks Pinch of Yum!
Yay! This makes us so happy to hear, Airlia!
I made this as a Thanksgiving side and it was DELICIOUS! This took up the majority of my plate because it was so good. I will definitely be making this again, thank you!
Glad you enjoyed the salad, Kate!
This salad is excellent! I am back to make it a second time for Thanksgiving. I did add goat cheese the first time and it was great!
Goat cheese on this sounds delicious. Thanks for the tip, Sarah!
Hi! Do we think this would work with spinach instead of kale? I know leafy greens are usually interchangeable but I’m not sure how the more delicate leaves would stand up to the toppings- what are your thoughts?
Hello! Would you mind elaborating on the nutritional information? I’m trying to puzzle out where the 28g of fat comes from. Not a big deal – I’m not here to be a pain about nutritional facts! This salad sounds amazing! I’m just trying to learn more about nutrition myself. Thank you!
I love the colours in this, it looks so beautiful and hearty.
Absolutely delicious!! I followed the recipe exactly and it was perfect! Thank you!
So happy to hear you enjoyed the salad, Gina! 🙂
Hello! The insta cart link says it has been removed. Will it be updated? Thanks!
I made this salad tonight to test it out for thanksgiving day. I used the right amount of butternut squash and cooked it at the suggested time. I was expecting the butternut squash to be crisp and brown but it just got softer and softer with not much browning.
The dressing is delicious and I could just eat the kale and dressing on its own. Just a bit bit disappointed in the butternut squash, if I were to make this again I would cut down the roasting time for the squash and roast the cheakpeas for 30-40 mins.
This salad was such a hit at my Friendsgiving! I doubled the recipe and eyeballed the nuts/cherries. I loved that it was so inexpensive to make and you pointed me in the direction of my favorite grocery store! I had a ton of extra dressing so I saved it for another salad (froze it). I used all the leftovers as a green base for a Thanksgiving leftovers bowl, topped with Brussels/cranberries/walnuts/acorn squash and hot turkey (maybe with a touch of gravy..). It was the best salad ever! Thank you so much!!
Thanksgiving leftovers bowl! That’s a great idea, Hillary!