Farewell, fromage!

Not eggs! Nowhere in this meal!

To break any misconceptions that you think we are just weird egg people like…

I made a winter salad tonight, which was stupid easy and went fairly quickly with the help of Kookie Cook and the rest of the fellas on The Midnite Sound of the Milky Way.

I started with this recipe — from a cool blog I found called For the Love of Food. And because there’s always something I change — it was the squash here. The lady likes just plain old squash? I wasn’t feeling it, and thought the salad could use a little zing. So before tossing the squash in coconut oil, I added about a tablespoon of sweet baby Jesus powder: aka garam masala.

For the not-knowing, let us consult Wikipedia:

A typical Indian version of garam masala is:

black & white peppercorns

cloves

malabar leaves

mace blades

black & white cumin seeds

black, brown & green cardamom pods

nutmeg

star anise

coriander seeds

Seriously. It’s a warm, cinnamon-y blend that we use everytime we roast squash, even sweet potatoes. It helps add a really good autumn flavor to dishes, and worked particularly well here.

Also, I used coconut oil in this recipe to roast my squash. It’s good because it’s a really neutral tasting, high-heat oil (in that it’s not going to become carcinogenic if it gets too hot ). However, I’m on the fence about how healthy it is, seeing that it’s pretty high in trans-fats.

Warm Winter Squash Salad
Serves 4
1 cup french lentils, cooked
2 cups water
2 medium delicata squash
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
Seeds from 1 pomegranate
6 cups of baby arugula

Add lentils and water to a pot over high heat. Bring to a boil, and then simmer, covered, for about 30 minutes, or until tender.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut squash into equal bite-size pieces. Toss with coconut oil and lay flat on sheet pan. Roast for 20 minutes, until tender, turning at least once.

Divide the arugula amongst four plates. Top with warm lentils, squash, and pomegranate seeds.

Dressing:

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons maple syrup

juice from 1 lemon

1 Tablespoon brown mustard

salt and pepper to taste

See? Super easy. In case you’re not familiar, here’s a couple of photos I thought might be helpful.

These are French lentils. You could probably make some other kind of lentil work here, but these ones are so tasty. I can’t get the damn picture to rotate.

Also, opening a pomegranate is damn tricky. I learned at some point in my life to slice the bugger up first — in two halves or quarter it.

Then get yourself a bowl of cold water. Then open the slices of pomegranate in the water — that way you don’t make your kitchen look like a murder scene and you’ll notice the white pithy parts rise to the top of the water while the arils sink to the bottom. Just skim the stuff you don’t want off the top!

Behold, the final salad:

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