Butternut Squash Salad with Yogurt Sauce

I know salads can sometimes have a bad rep. A lot of people think they're boring or not a real meal. Well, here I have a Butternut Squash Salad with Yogurt Sauce recipe that will get rid of that misconception. 

When you are transitioning into a vegan diet a salad might be the last thing you want to eat because it is the only thing you actually eat. I know how boring it is to have a bunch of tossed lettuce with some tomato slices and the same old dressing. But salads can be so much more interesting than that. 

Actually, I like experimenting with salad as much as I can. You can put together all sorts of ingredients and come up with something beautiful and delicious. And you can use raw ingredients, boiled, roasted or sweet, sour, savoury. It's going to depend on how you mix and match all of them.

So, once again, I did the crazy experimenting so you don't have to and came up with this butternut squash salad. It has fruits, veggies, legumes, herbs and spices. As you can see, we have all sorts of things in it. Together, they make a colourful and delicious salad that will keep you satiated for quite a while. 

At home, we love butternut squash. Sometimes, I eat it with just soy yogurt, salt, and fresh herbs. Usually, when I cook butternut squash, I rather roast it instead of boiling it. If butternut squash already has a sweet nutty flavour, this will boost that sweetness to another level. This veggie has a high carb content so when you put it in the oven these carbs (aka sugars) caramelise. You are basically making veggie candy! 

We are also adding rocket, mango, mint, cashew nuts, and brown lentils to our butternut squash salad. All the ingredients make this salad a truckload of nutrients. You will be getting a ton of vitamins and minerals, it has a lot of fibre, and a good amount of complex carbs and 18g of protein in 559kcal per serving.

With all that colour and nutrients in the same bowl, we need a simple sauce that won't overpower the other flavours in this butternut squash salad. The sauce is made with soy yogurt as a base. You can find this kind of yogurt in most supermarkets or at health stores. You can even make it at home but that's a recipe for another day. 

Plain soy yogurt doesn't have much taste to it but it will give us the creamy silky texture we need to complement our butternut squash salad. To finish off the texture and get the flavour we are after we will add tapioca starch, cinnamon, lime juice, the zest and juice of an orange, and sea salt. The flavour is very subtle but perfect for our salad. 

This butternut squash salad seems like a treat. But be certain you will be well nourished whenever you eat a bowl of this colourful creation. For more amazing butternut squash recipes also try out our Loaded Butternut Squash with Black Beans and Kale.