This butternut squash salad is a must-try fall recipe! It's filled with spiced squash, pomegranates, goat cheese & a delicious cumin-date dressing.
Do you do Friendsgiving or Thanksgiving? Or both? We’re celebrating both this year, so I created this crowd-pleasing butternut squash salad recipe because I know both friends AND family members will love it. It’s the kind of salad that will convert anyone to being a salad lover, because it’s filled with spiced roasted butternut squash, pomegranates, goat cheese, and pistachios. It’s a roasty, spicy, creamy, tangy combo that Jack and I are pretty obsessed with.
Butternut Squash Salad Recipe Ingredients
This salad packs a huge punch of flavor, thanks to 6 essential components:
- Spiced roasted butternut squash. I toss the soft, creamy cubes of squash with cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and cayenne to give them a warm, sweet & spicy flavor.
- Pomegranate seeds. They add a fun pop of pink and juicy, bursty bites.
- Pistachios. I love adding a nutty, crunchy element to any salad recipe, and pistachios are excellent here.
- Chopped Medjool dates. The sweet dates pair perfectly with the warmly spiced squash.
- Goat cheese. The creamy, tangy goat cheese cuts the sweetness of the squash and dates. If you’d prefer to make this salad vegan, substitute diced avocado.
- Cumin-spiced cider-date dressing. This tangy, punchy dressing ties the whole salad together! I make it by blending apple cider vinegar with 1 Medjool date, cumin, olive oil, lemon juice, and a big pinch of cumin. It really highlights the sweet, spiced fall flavors here.
This butternut squash salad recipe is super easy to pull off. Roast the squash, spice it, blend the dressing, and put it all together. A tip for roasting the squash: I like to add the spice mix AFTER the squash comes out of the oven while it’s still warm so the spices don’t burn.
If you love this butternut squash salad recipe…
Try my beet salad, Brussels sprout salad, kale salad, or fall farro salad next!
Butternut Squash Salad
Ingredients
- 1 small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed
- ½ to 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, less if sensitive to spice
- 6 cups loose-packed spring mix greens
- 2 ounces goat cheese, torn into smaller pieces
- 2 Medjool dates, pitted and diced
- ¼ cup pomegranate seeds
- ¼ cup pistachios, toasted and crushed
Cider Date Dressing (makes extra)
- 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 Medjool date, pitted
- ½ garlic clove
- â…› teaspoon ground cumin
- 3 to 5 tablespoons water, as needed to blend
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the butternut squash cubes on the sheet. Drizzle with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to coat and spread evenly on the baking sheet. Roast for 30 to 35 minutes, or until tender and browned around the edges.
- In a small bowl, stir together the cumin, coriander, cinnamon, and cayenne. Set aside.
- Make the Cider Date Dressing: In a blender, combine the olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, date, garlic, cumin, and 3 tablespoons of the water. Add 1 to 2 more tablespoons of water as needed to blend. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Remove the butternut squash from the oven, let cool slightly, and, while warm, toss with the spice mixture.
- Assemble the salad with the spring mix greens and half of the roasted squash. Drizzle with â…“ of the dressing, toss lightly, then add the remaining squash, goat cheese, dates, pomegranates, and pistachios. Drizzle with more dressing as desired. Serve immediately.
Special thanks to ALDI for partnering on this post.
I need to make this a few hours ahead (today!)… should I refrigerate the squash and then reheat in microwave before adding to salad? Let it sit out at room temp? Thanks so much!!
Hi Bonnie, you can chill the squash – I’d reheat it in the oven if you can, or just let it come to room temperature before you add it to the salad. (I think the microwave could make it very soggy). Hope that helps!
My family loved this recipe–even the kids. I’m not a huge cumin fan, generally, but I left it in the dressing. Next time I’ll take it out. Otherwise, I wouldn’t change a thing! It was great. I didn’t have pom seeds and it didn’t matter 🙂 Oh, and I did add 3 dates to the dressing instead of 1 — because my kids like a sweeter dressing. Then I just spritzed a little lemon over my portion. It was perfect and will make again!
I’m so glad everyone loved it!
I seriously made this salad 12 times in the span of a few months. It’s so good and the perfect Fall / Winter salad.
I’m totally making this salad apart of my thanksgiving dinner <3 I can't wait! The combination for the squash, dates, and pomegranate seed sounds amazing. Ill be using kale only though instead of the mixed.
This was OUTSTANDING! I substituted dried cranberries for pomegranates bc I couldn’t get them, and arugula for the salad greens. A big hit at a pot luck, not a pinch left!
Such a delicious salad! Totally changed my husbands view of salads & now will be a weekly staple… its amazing!! I was just wondering, what are the total calories for it? I couldn’t see that on the recipe… or should I just add it up separately?!?
I’m so glad you both loved it! Apologies, I don’t calculate nutritional info.
Awesome tasting , thanks to the inventor
Made this for thanksgiving and it was a huge hit! Thanks!
Can you store leftover dressing in the refrigerator? Can’t wait to try this!
yep, you can! If it gets thick, just stir in a little water before serving again. I hope you love the salad!
WOW! This looks fanatstic. I think i make it for lunch today. Thanks for the recipe and the inspiration.
Could go for a little spice in my salad. This looks great!
Thank you for creating the salad – so beautiful, easy to make, and delicious!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Hi, I’m going to bring a dish to someone else’s house for the first time and I know the oven is going to be reserved for the turkey. Any tips for making this ahead? Could I reheat the squash in a frying pan or is that gonna get weird? Thanks!
I would just reheat the squash in the microwave for 30 seconds or so (it doesn’t need to be hot hot). I would keep the dressing separate until you’re about ready to serve. Hope that helps!
I am making this for thanksgiving and did a try out. But the dates didn’t mix well in the blender. They came out chunky bits. Maybe they were not fresh enough? do you have any ideas? thanks love your recipes…
it’s fixable! It sounds like either there’s not enough liquid in your blender (to get the blade moving well) or your dates were not super soft to begin with. I’d add 2 tablespoons of semi-hot water, let it sit for maybe 5-ish minutes. Blend again and see if that works. As long as the chunks are sort of even chunks, it’ll still be ok, it doesn’t need to be completely smooth to make a good salad. Let me know if that’s helpful!
Turned out great! Ran out of garlic but it worked without it. A fall staple for any dinner table 😉 I
mhh looks sooo delicious! Like the combination of goat cheese, dates, pomegranate seeds and squash. Gonne put that on my list for the weekend 🙂
Anna
I’ve got a dinner tomorrow night and this would be perfect! Could I substitute the pistachio for a different nut/seed? Like pumpkin or sunflower seeds?
you could – I would toast them with a pinch of salt before adding. Hope you enjoy the salad!
Wow, looks like a great balance of flavors and textures. Love the pomegranate seeds!
So many fall goodies in this salad—love it!
This salad sounds marvelous. I especially like that it has no garlic, because that means I could serve it when my sister visits. I’m going to have to start making fall salads!
I hope you enjoy the salad! There is some garlic in the dressing, but you could skip it if your sister has issues with it.