A salad of roasted pumpkin with salty feta chunks on a bed of salad leaves, with toasted walnuts and pine nuts is the perfect harmony of flavours.
Sad pumpkins
What happens to the pumpkins after Halloween? I have often wondered. It would be great if they weren’t wasted but rather eaten in a post-Halloween dish but I reckon they, especially the carved ones, end up in the landfill.
That makes me sad. The joy and entertainment they gave to kids and adults alike on the Halloween night and now they are sitting lonely on the doorstep, getting rained on or drying slowly until a front porch clear-out sends them to the compost bin.
Plus, though I’m personally not a huge fan of pumpkins as food (nobody is), it’s a waste.
Halloween – Thanksgiving link?
I like to think that at least in America they take better care of their pumpkins, using them for pumpkin pies, since Thanksgiving is only round the corner from Halloween. But I strongly suspect that is not the case.
Apart from the fact that a pumpkin puree tin is easier to open than a carved pumpkin to process and bake, they are quite astonishingly hygiene-conscious over there. Something that’s been sitting on your doorstep sure ain’t food! (though it is)
Time to convince everyone otherwise. Hence, my recipe, inspired by Nigella Lawson's pumpkin and radicchio salad from New York Times Cooking. It’s delicious – and it saves the pumpkin from waste.
How to roast the pumpkin
If the pumpkin is a Halloween legacy, it’s been carved and emptied already, which makes the job really easy.
But if it’s whole, first cut it in half. The seeds and the pulp can be scraped out with a spoon, and you don’t need to worry too much about removing the latter terribly thoroughly.
The skin can be peeled with a vegetable peeler, and then you can cut the flesh into large dice. Brushed with oil, spread on a baking tray it will need to bake for just over half an hour, until lightly charred. Prod it with a pointy knife to check it’s tender.
Roasted pumpkin will keep very well in the fridge if you want to prepare it ahead.
How to assemble the salad
The red onion should be sliced thinly, and soaking it in lime juice has two benefits: it loses the oniony sharpness as well as gains the lime flavour.
The nuts, pumpkin seeds and pine kernels toasted, it is just the case of mixing everything in a bowl.
Variations
Nigella’s original recipe has radicchio in it instead of salad leaves. As well as that, you can try it with chicory.
Walnuts and pine nuts may be replaced with any other nuts, but I think pumpkin seeds work very well complementing roasted pumpkin chunks.
Instead of pumpkin, use any kind of squash you like and process it in the same way.
And the feta can be swapped for goats cheese, ripe brie or camembert, or chunks of dolcelatte or gorgonzola.
Which will obviously turn it into a completely different dish, along the lines of the amusing comments on New York Times Cooking.
More pumpkin recipes
Pumpkin fondue in individual munchkin pumpkins, mini or baby pumpkins, baked and filled with cheese fondue. This is the best way to bake and stuff a pumpkin.
Pumpkin and cranberry pie with filling made with condensed milk and canned pumpkin purée. Homemade pie crust from scratch and a cranberry layer are the winning factors in this festive pie.
Easy pumpkin bread recipe, about 5 minutes from start to finish excluding baking. A great pumpkin cake baked in a loaf tin, with dried cranberries and walnuts, a perfect autumnal recipe for pumpkin bread.
More feta salad recipes
Chicken and melon salad with feta and avocado. Roasted sliced chicken breast is lovely paired with fresh melon, salty feta, filo crumbs and a few seeds.
Fresh cucumbers with feta cheese and honey are a minimalist version of Greek salad and all the better for skipping tomatoes – mainly for your digestion.
Feta cheese, roasted grapes and crunchy walnuts are the perfect combination of juicy, sweet, crunchy and salty. It's a fantastic autumnal salad, to serve for lunch or as a starter.