Vegan Pumpkin Salad
If you’re looking for a warm salad, designed for fall to take to a dinner party you’ve come to the right place. This pumpkin cous cous salad is full of flavour and goodness you’ll have everyone asking for the recipe!
Pumpkin works so well roasted and added to a warm salad and this pumpkin is perfectly flavoured with warming Moroccan spices to balance out the sweetness.
With dried cranberry and salty cheese and a creamy tahini dressing to tie it all together- this Autumnal salad will be lovely on a cosy dinner spread so give it a try!
Couscous salad ingredients-
- Pumpkin- Raw pumpkin is best as it needs to be roasted fresh. Frozen would go too soggy. You can also use squash or sweet potato.
- Couscous – I used pearl couscous but you can use ordinary couscous. This also works as a pasta salad.
- Red onion – Swap out for yellow or white onion if you like.
- Cheese – Feta would be best for this but you could also use cubed cheddar.
- Spinach – Fresh spinach, arugula or any salad leaves are all great.
- Cranberries – Dried cranberries can also be subbed for sultanas or omit.
- Ras el hanout – This Moroccan multipurpose seasoning is great for warming autumnal salads. You could also make your own seasoning blend depending on what elements you have of a ras el hanout. Store bought Moroccan seasonings would also work.
- Tahini – Great for a creamy dressing.
- Maple syrup – Tahini has a bitter element so adding sweetness from maple syrup helps to balance this. You could also use agave or liquid sweetener.
- Red wine vinegar – This is for the acidity of the dressing. Feel free to use lemon juice instead.
Cooking pearl couscous
Pearl couscous is like pasta so you can boil it in water just like pasta. Once cooked it needs to be drained and rinsed in cold water to stop the cooking process and stop it from sticking together. If you are going to make the cous cous ahead of time I reccomend drizzling on some olive oil and stirring well. This
Some popular recipes from the blog
Roasting pumpkin
The best way to roast pumpkin from raw is to drizzle with oil and cook on high heat. This caramelises the outside and perfectly cooks the inside giving the best flavour and texture.
How to make couscous salad
- Coat the pumpkin in seasoning and oil and roast
- Half way through add the onions and put back in the oven
- Mix the dressing adding a little water to thin
- Add everything into a bowl
- Mix well
- Serve with dressing drizzled on top
Vegan cous cous pumpkin salad
Ingredients
- 100 g Pumpkin peeled and diced
- 100 g Pearl Couscous dry weight
- ½ Red onion
- 40 g Cheese
- Handful Fresh Spinach
- 25 g Dried Cranberries
- 1 tsp Ras el hanout
- 1 tsp salt
For the dressing-
- 1 tsp Ras el hanout
- 1 tbsp Tahini
- 1 tsp Maple syrup
- 1 tsp Red wine vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F
- Cook the couscous to packet instructions, drain and set aside.
- Toss the pumpkin cubes in olive oil and 1 tsp of ras el hanout.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- Slice the onion and add to the baking tray with the pumpkin- toss in the seasoning and oil on the tray.
- Bake for a further 10 minutes.
- Mix the dressing ingredients together, adding water little by little to thin the dressing to desired consistency.
- Chop up the spinach and cranberries.
- Add the pumpkin, onion, spinach, cranberries and couscous and your cheese to a mixing bowl.
- Toss gently and add to a serving dish.
- Drizzle on the dressing and serve.
Some popular salad recipes from the blog
Leave a Reply