Winter Warmers: Part 1 Warm Butternut and Tahini salad

We’re sharing some of Team MFML’s favourite winter warmer recipes. This week a warm butternut squash salad with tahini dressing offers a great vegan main.

Movement for Modern Life’s social media maven, Laura Perry is committed to using what she has at home in a creative way. Rather than sticking to a recipe, Laura uses recipes like a blueprint, to then build on using her own inspiration. This warm butternut and tahini salad was inspired Laura’s favourite ingredients and flavours from her store cupboard. Laura says she adds this tahini dressing to ‘everything’. We’d love to hear if you try it and feel the same.

Ingredients

For the Salad

2 Red onions
1 medium squash cut into wedges
2 teaspoons Zatar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
1 cup cooked Lentils (use your favourite type)
200g Kale
Lemon juice
Chopped dried fruit: apricots or figs

For the dressing

2 Tablespoons light tahini
1/2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon agave nectar or maple syrup
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 – 2 tablespoons water
Pinch of sea-salt

Method

1. Get your oven really hot (240c or Gas Mark 7, you’ll need to reduce the heat for a fan assisted oven).
2. Arrange the red onion and butternut squash in a large baking tray. Season, sprinkle with zatar and allspice and drizzle over olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Roast for 35 – 40 minutes until cooked and golden.
3. Warm 1 tablespoon of oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the kale, as it wilts, add in the lentils. (You can always use tinned, if you haven’t got time to soak and cook them). Squeeze over the lemon juice and season. Stir through the dried fruit. Set aside.
4. Whilst you wait for the squash to finish cooking, prepare the dressing by whisking together all the dressing ingredients.
5. Serve by placing your grain mix on a large platter. Add the red onion and squash and drizzle with the dressing and sunflower seeds and coriander.

Laura likes to serve this with flat bread, cucumber and coconut yoghurt. Do you have any favourite lentil or winter squash recipes? Share yours in the movers group.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

About Laura Perry:

Laura Perry tells stories with words and pictures for MFML as our Social Media Maven. Laura trained as a Yoga Teacher in Goa, India at Sampoorna School – and life has never been the same since! Happiest when barefoot and in the great outdoors (either on land or sea!) Laura has always loved story telling and community and so it’s a perfect harmony to run the social media for MFML!