While this is a Thanksgiving recipe, it’s more of my What-I-Make-When-I-Want-the-Holidays-Year-Round recipe. It’s a warming, comforting, healthy quinoa salad that packs in all the flavors I want from this season, but in a well-rounded, nutritious way. Squash and Quinoa Salad with Cranberry Dressing covers all my Thanksgiving bases, while being a phenomenal fall salad that you can bring to really…anything.
Plus, with a bit of beans thrown in it serves as incredible meal-prep. You know, if you are craving Thanksgiving energy in your lunches all week.
Pick a grain, any grain
While I love quinoa, I also think any grain YOU love fits well in this salad. The thing about grains is that they are universally hearty, and they do adapt well to any flavor combination. I think quinoa has a softness to it that helps it absorb this dressing well, but I wouldn’t be opposed to a farro, a wild rice, a buckwheat, or a bulgur situation. Whatever you have (or like!) will work great.
Get the vegetables all nice and toasted
There is nothing I love more than letting squash get all brown and caramelized in the oven (see picture below). It takes the mild flavor in squash and makes it craveable.
Both the squash and fennel get cooked here, just to roast them into their sweetest state. Don’t crowd the pan, all the squash needs to be touching the pan’s surface. If that means you have to move some squash to the fennel pan, don’t sweat it.
Turn cranberry sauce into the best salad dressing you’ve ever had
Okay fine, you’ve seen this dressing here…and here. But that doesn’t stop it from being a great choice for this salad.
Since cranberry sauce already has plenty of sweetness and acid, this dressing only bulks it up a bit with vinegar, honey, and olive oil. It emulsifies like a dream.
Make it in the bottom of a big bowl, though. Because that’s where all of our salad will end up going.
I like assembling this Squash and Quinoa Salad like a mason-jar salad
Remember those from 2017? The mason jar salads that were ALL the rage (and made quite a few of my work lunch rotations). But the beauty of a mason jar salad was that it was transportable. And especially for Friendsgivings or Thanksgiving potlucks, you do want it to be transportable.
When we make the dressing in the bottom of the bowl, put the quinoa and roasted vegetables in next, then finish off with the leafy greens and toppings, it makes it so that this salad can sit for a while (even overnight in the fridge!) and be ready for tossing right at the last second.
So, mason jar salads, I salute you. You are a fantastic model for this idea.
Let’s say you don’t love fennel (or any other veggies)
I really buried the substitutions here, but here are some ideas:
- If you don’t like fennel – roast red onion, sweet white onion, or slivered parsnips instead.
- If you don’t like squash – sub in sweet potato, standard potatoes, or a mixture of roasted carrots, Brussels sprouts and parsnips.
- If you don’t like spinach – honestly, just leave it out. OR you can add in any leafy green that you do like. This one you can play with.
Yes, of course there’s brown butter in this
BECAUSE IT’S THE HOLIDAYS, AND WHO AM I WITHOUT MY BROWN BUTTER??
This time, brown butter toasts some pepitas and fries some rosemary, making it the perfect base for some really rich and seasonal flavors. I don’t recommend pouring all the butter into this salad. You can save it, let it chill until solid, and then you’ll have toasty rosemary-infused butter to use throughout the week.
How to store this salad, before and after mixing it
If you are making this salad in advance for a party:
Don’t mix it. Assemble it mason-jar-style (see the section above) where the dressing is on the bottom, then the quinoa, then the roasted vegetables, then the fried sage and pepitas, then the spinach, parmesan and pomegranate seeds. Cover this in plastic wrap, but make sure everything has reached room temperature so the salad doesn’t steam. Store this in the fridge until you want to toss and serve. It will keep for about 12 hours.
If you’ve already served it and you are storing the leftovers:
This is a great salad to pile into individual serving-size tupperware. The salad will keep well for up to five days. You can either gently reheat it in the microwave on low, or you can eat it cold.
Looking for other Thanksgiving ideas?
We have a whole Holidays section now on the blog! Mostly because I cannot get enough.
Thanksgiving Salmon
Brown Butter Crispy Potatoes with Walnuts & Sage
Frangipane Pumpkin Pie with Rosemary Sugar
And that’s everything for these Squash and Quinoa Salad with Cranberry Dressing!
If you make it, please tag me on Pinterest or Instagram so I can see! It’s my favorite thing to scroll through stories and see what you all are making.
And of course feel free to leave any questions, comments or reviews! This is the best place to reach me, and I’d love to hear from you <3
Ingredients
- 1 cup tri-color quinoa
- 2 small delicata squash
- 1 medium acorn squash
- 1 large fennel, 12 ounces
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons salted butter
- 3-4 medium rosemary sprigs
- 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
- 6-7 cups spinach leaves, around 8 ounces
- 2 ounces shaved parmesan
- 1 small pomegranate, for serving
For the cranberry dressing:
- 1/4 cup cranberry sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- Freshly cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Evenly stagger two racks in the oven and preheat to 400°F convection or 425°F standard.
- In a small pot or rice cooker, cook the quinoa according to package instructions and set aside.
- Slice the acorn squash into 1-inch thick wedges, cut the delicata squash into 1/2-inch thick half moon pieces Thinly slice the fennel. Add the squash to one sheet pan and the fennel to another. Drizzle both pans with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and season with salt. Roast the fennel on the top rack for 15 minutes and the squash on the bottom rack in for 20-25 minutes, or until darkened on the bottoms. Set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together the ingredients for the cranberry dressing. Taste and add salt or vinegar as preferred.
- In a small sauté pan over medium heat, add 2 tablespoons of salted butter, the leaves from 3-4 rosemary sprigs, and 1/3 cup pumpkin seeds. Let the butter melt, season with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and stir often, allow the seeds to toast and the rosemary to fry until it is curling up and crisp. The butter will be slightly brown. Turn off the heat.
- Now it’s time to assemble. To the bowl with the dressing, add the quinoa, the roasted squash and fennel, then spoon in the fried rosemary and pumpkin seeds, scooping them away from the butter in the pan. (Store the butter in the fridge and use it as rosemary butter throughout the week).
- Pile the spinach on top. Shave on 2 ounces of parmesan, then sprinkle in the seeds from a pomegranate, reserving some seeds for the topping. Toss everything together until well combined. Taste and season as preferred.
- Pile into a serving dish, dot with pomegranate seeds, and enjoy!
Comments
Could the fennel be substituted? Love everything else in this, but I’m sensitive to fennel!
Absolutely! Use red onion 🙂
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