This Harvest Salad with Cranberry Lemon Vinaigrette will become your favorite fall and winter salad. A bed of arugula and spinach topped with roasted butternut squash, goat cheese, red onions, pepitas, cucumbers and homemade sugar free candied pecans. Top it all off with a sugar free cranberry lemon vinaigrette, which creates a beautiful to look at masterpiece that tastes amazing, and is healthy for you too! Perfect for low carb diets this holiday season.
Ingredients:
- Stovetop low carb candied pecans (see notes)
- Sugar free cranberry lemon vinaigrette
- Butternut squash
- pink Himalayan salt, pepper and dried sage
- Butter
- Arugula and spinach mix
- Persian cucumbers
- Red onion
- Roasted pepitas
- Soft goat cheese
Let’s Make This Harvest Salad!
First, preheat your oven to 425°F.
The next step would be to prepare your sugar free cranberry lemon vinaigrette if you haven’t already. It can be prepared up to a week ahead of time. It comes together in less than 5 minutes in the food processor, but it tastes best if chilled. So make that first, so you can keep it in the fridge while the rest of the salad comes together.
While your oven is preheating, peel and cut up a small to medium sized butternut squash and cut it into bite sized pieces. Place the squash in a large bowl, then melt your butter, and drizzle it over the squash. Season with salt, pepper and dried sage to taste. Toss with a rubber spatula, then transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the pieces are golden brown.
Next, you will want to prepare your candied pecans, if you haven’t already. You can prepare them up to 10 days ahead of time. They take just 15 minutes to prepare in total, and 10 of those minutes are spent resting. Once they come out of the skillet, set them aside while you put the rest of the salad together.
Now, add your arugula and spinach to a large bowl. Layer on all of your ingredients.
Now, drizzle on your sugar free cranberry lemon vinaigrette and enjoy this Harvest Salad.
Recipe Notes:
The key to a delicious Harvest Salad is a variety in flavor, texture and temperature of the ingredients added. There are a few steps involved to make this salad, but we promise, the end result will have you wanting to eat this salad everyday.
Salad Dressing: You can really use any salad dressing you want, but this sugar free cranberry lemon vinaigrette is so easy to make, it’s delicious, and you probably have all the ingredients hanging around during the holiday season. The salad dressing can be made up to a week ahead.
Roasted Butternut Squash & Pepitas: The butternut squash is roasted for about 25 minutes at 425F with butter, rubbed sage, salt and pepper. It’s incredible. You can make this ahead of time as well, just warm it up before adding it to your Harvest Salad.
We assume that you can roast and salt your own pepitas (also known as pumpkin kernels or seeds) but they’re so easy to buy already pre-made, so that’s what we do.
Candied Pecans: You can make these easy stovetop candied pecans as many as 10 days ahead of time, and you can find plenty of other uses for them during the holiday season. They come together very quickly on the stovetop in a skillet.
Shop This Recipe!
More Recipes To Try:
- Keto Candied Butternut Squash
- Creamy Parmesan Chicken and Butternut Squash Skillet Recipe
- Sirloin Steak Salad with Fresh Mozzarella and Roasted Vegetables
Please let us know if you guys give this Harvest Salad recipe a try, and be sure to share with us on Instagram @afullliving so we can share your creations! We hope you enjoy how we combined some of our favorite holiday recipes.
If you love this recipe, please consider sharing it with a friend and also leaving a rating and comment so others can find this recipe. Thank you for your support!
Until next time,
Briana & Chamere
Harvest Salad Recipe with Cranberry Lemon Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 2 servings stovetop low carb candied pecans
- 1 cup butternut squash
- salt, pepper and dried sage to taste
- 2 tbsp butter
- 8 ounces arugula and spinach mix
- 2 whole Persian cucumbers
- 1/2 whole red onion (About 100 grams)
- 1 ounce roasted pepitas
- 4 ounces soft goat cheese
- sugar free cranberry lemon vinaigrette dressing to serve (to taste, not included in nutrition facts)
Instructions
Make the Cranberry Lemon Vinaigrette Dressing:
- The next step would be to prepare your sugar free cranberry lemon vinaigrette if you haven’t already. It can be prepared up to a week ahead of time. It comes together in less than 5 minutes in the food processor, but it tastes best if chilled. So make that first, so you can keep it in the fridge while the rest of the salad comes together.
Roast the Butternut Squash:
- First, preheat your oven to 425F. While your oven is preheating, peel and cut up a small to medium sized butternut squash and cut it into bite sized pieces. Place the squash in a large bowl, then melt your butter, and drizzle it over the squash. Season with salt, pepper and dried sage to taste. Toss with a rubber spatula, then transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the pieces are golden brown.
Make the Candied Pecans:
- Next, you will want to prepare your candied pecans, if you haven’t already. You can prepare them up to 10 days ahead of time. They take just 15 minutes to prepare in total, and 10 of those minutes are spent resting. Once they come out of the skillet, set them aside while you put the rest of the salad together.
Put the Harvest Salad together:
- Now, add your arugula and spinach to a large bowl. Layer on red onions, and your butternut squash once cooked.
- Add some cucumbers, your candied pecans and goat cheese.
- Add in the pepitas. Keep layering the ingredients so you can see all the lovely colors. Now, drizzle on this Harvest Salad with your sugar free cranberry lemon vinaigrette.
Notes
Nutrition
These nutrition facts are provided as a courtesy and are only estimates. We cannot guarantee the accuracy.
Leave a Reply