Warm Butternut Squash and Beetroot Salad

When I think of salad, I think summer. A refreshing cold salad with lettuce, bacon, avocados, smothered in thousand island sauce. Crisp, light and perfect at any barbecue.

However, since it's winter right now, this is perfect for the colder weather. I had never eaten or heard of a warm salad before, but I saw a recipe on Bon Appétit for a warm salad, and I was inspired to make my own.

This salad is built up of some of my favourite flavours; beetroot, goats cheese, walnuts and kale. I added butternut squash for some body and earthiness, as well as a few more fix ins. This salad is delicious as a light starter, or even as a light meal, if you add some extra croutons and/or proteins to beef it up.

Recipe: Prep time: 20 mins|Cook time: 1 hour| Overall: 1 hr 30 mins| Serves: 2-4

Ingredients: -1 whole butternut squash, cubed

-12 baby beetroots, halved and cooked

-1 Pack of piccolo tomatoes. (You can also use cherry or baby plum)

-1 Bag of Kale

-Walnut halves, lightly toasted and roughly chopped

-Balsamic vinegar

-Olive Oil

-Goat's cheese

-Salt and pepper, to taste

-Lemon Juice

Method: 1) Chop the butternut squash up into small cubes. I actually recommend to buy this pre-cut because this was a pain to chop up, and takes the bulk of the prep time up. Coat this in salt, pepper and olive oil. Roast in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius, for about 40 minutes, or until the squash is fork tender and soft to the taste.

2) In the last 15 minutes or so of this roasting time, cover the tomatoes in olive oil, salt and pepper, and put these in the oven too, so that they blister and soften up. You can add the beetroot in the last 5 minutes of this, so that they warm through.

3) In a pot of boiling water, blanch the kale until it's tender, but with a bit of crunch still left. Drain this really well, and douse it in olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

4) Make the dressing by mixing around 4 tablespoons of balsamic with 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil. I also sometimes like to add some chopped fresh mint to this, to make it even fresher, but I didn't have any on hand.

5) Now it's time to plate the salad. At the bottom of the bowls, put the dressed kale, then add the fix-ins, making sure everything looks equal and evenly spaced out. Put small dollops of the goats cheese over the top, and sprinkle salt and a tiny bit of olive oil over each piece of cheese.

6) Finish the salad with the dressing and chopped walnuts on top. Enjoy!