Fall Squash, Apple and Pear Salad

This salad just screams FALL!

I start with a bed of arugula or spinach, depending on what I have in the fridge.  The base also gives you an opportunity to play with sweet and tart.  Arugula has a bit of a peppery flavor to it that offsets the sweetness of the apple and pear, but spinach gives you more of a neutral starting point so that you can pair it with a nice, tart Granny Smith.  There is no wrong option here.

As for the pear, you can definitely go with a Bartlett, red, Bosch, or even an Asian pear, depending on how sweet you want it to be, or, if you choose Asian, how. crispy you want it to be instead of juicy.  You can really team up a custom combination of the fruits.

Butternut squash is everywhere in the fall, so it’s probably one of the easiest to use (use the leftovers from this recipe to make soup, or as a tasty side dish all by itself to get those daily servings of veggies in!), but you can also use a honey nut squash.  I probably wouldn’t recommend acorn unless you are going to balance it with a really sweet pear and apple since it it definitely more earthy than the butternut.

If you want to use an air fryer to cook the squash, just cut the time in half, checking halfway through to make sure you aren’t going to overcook your squash and either burn it or make it mushy.  If you are choosing to use the air fryer, then I recommend leaving the shallots raw or adding them to the dressing, since they are very light and will ping-pong around the air fryer like, well, a ping pong ball. I do like them cooked though, because they add an extra crunch that I love.

Finally, if you don’t have a blender, you can simply sprinkle  the cranberries on top of the salad and then whisk together the remaining ingredients for the dressing.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups squash cubes (I used butternut)
• 1 apple (I used honeycrisp)
• 1 pear
• 1/3 cup walnuts or pecans
• 4 cups arugula (or spinach)
• 1 cup thinly sliced shallots
• olive oil (I used olive oil spray)
• 1 teaspoon ground garlic
• 1 Tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
• pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Toss the squash with 1 teaspoon of olive oil (or spray lightly), pinch of salt and the ground garlic.  Place on lined pan and roast for 20-30 minutes till tender, adding the shallots for the last 12 minutes (you can also lightly spray the shallots with oil and cook in an air fryer 5-6 minutes to make them crispy). Remove from oven and cool.
3. Assemble the salad: On a platter, arrange the arugula, top with sliced pear, sliced apple, cooked squash, nuts and shallots.
4. For the dressing, combine the vinegar through the salt in a blender and puree till smooth.

Enjoy!