Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Roasted squash salad with warm bacon vinaegrette



I needed a side salad for my pork tenderloin and wanted to use up bacon and butternut squash I had at home. what I ended up with was so delicious it could have been an entree salad!

What I had:

  • 1 medium butternut squash, sliced 1/4' around and then quartered
  • 1 red onion thinly sliced
  • 3 stalks of baby bok choy, cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1 cup thinly sliced red cabbage
  • 8 strips of bacon, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
  • 1 cup red wine (I had a Malbec)
  • 1 cup sparkling white wine (I used a Moscato d'asti)
  • 1/2 cup walnuts chopped
What I did:
  • Spread the squash on a pan, drizzle with olive oil, salt & pepper, and roast at 350 degrees for 25 minutes
  • While it cools, add the bok choy and cabbage to a salad bowl
  • Add the walnuts to the salad
  • In a large pan, cook the bacon till almost crisp. Add it to the salad bowl.
  • Add the squash to the bowl
  • Drain the bacon fat, reserving 1 tbsp in the pan and 2 tbsp aside for later
  • Saute the red onions till soft in the bacon fat
  • Add the wines (now I used these 2 wines because I didn't red wine vinegar and compromised, but it turned out so good!) Stir, scraping the bacon bits off the pan. Sprinkle some salt, pepper and garlic to taste.
  • Cook on medium heat till you can't taste the alcohol, about 5-7 minutes
  • Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and toss to combine
It was so good, the child declared the salad to be better than the bacon covered tenderloin!

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