The Social Kitchen: Nutty butternut salad

This recipe is from the cookbook The Social Kitchen, which honours the energy, effervescence and joie de vivre of author Shally Tucker. Her daughter, Dani, gathered together the recipes in her mum’s memory in this beautiful book, and all proceeds go to Dermatrust.

The book is designed to encapsulate her mother’s philosophy: to encourage people to cook, to enjoy life, to give back, to entertain, to create, and to have fun. It’s her mother’s book of wisdom, humour and quirky ideologies. 

Nutty Butternut Salad

Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 2 large butternut squash
• 2 tbsp runny honey
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
• 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds (or the seeds from your squash)
• 25g pecan nuts
• 25g unsalted peanuts
• 100g baby spinach
• 2 tbsp roasted salted
• Giant corn
• Small bunch of chives
• Roughly snipped salt and black pepper

For the dressing:

• 65ml sunflower oil
• 20ml Safari brown vinegar (or other brown vinegar)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1⁄2 tsp black pepper
• 1⁄2 tsp garlic salt
• 1⁄4 tsp table salt
• 4 tbsp mayonnaise
• 4 tbsp plain yoghurt
• 2 tsp peanut butter

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas 6. Peel the squash and cut into wedges. Put the wedges in a big bowl and toss them with a tablespoon of the honey and the sunflower oil, then season with salt and pepper. Tip the wedges onto a baking tray and bake them for 45 minutes until soft and slightly caramelised. Leave them to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, toast the seeds and nuts in a dry frying pan for a couple of minutes. When they begin to colour, add the remaining tablespoon of honey and a good pinch of salt. Let the nuts and seeds caramelize for 30 seconds, then take the pan off the heat and leave the nuts and seeds to cool.

Mix all the dressing ingredients together in a jug. Roughly chop the seeds and nuts, leaving the smaller ones whole. Spread the spinach on a serving dish, top with the squash, then scatter the nuts, seeds and giant corn on top. Drizzle the thick creamy dressing over the salad and scatter it with chives. 

Recipe taken from The Social Kitchen. All sales from the book go to Dermatrust (dermatrust.co.uk). To purchase the book go to thesocialkitchen.org.