Pumpkin season is here and I certainly have been enjoying them so far. This weekend I picked up a small pie pumpkin and I was thinking of using it in a salad. Normally I would cut the pumpkin up into bite sized pieces and roast it up, but this time I was thinking about something different. I envisioned slicing the pumpkin into wedges and roasting the wedges in the oven until they started to caramelize. I could just imagine how those wedges would look on a bed of salad greens! But, a salad is not made from just roasted pumpkin and salad greens alone and I still had some flavours to add to finish things off. I figured that some nice and creamy gorgonzola cheese would go well with the sweet roasted pumpkin and some toasted chopped walnuts seemed to go hand in hand. I could not resist frying up some sage in butter until it turned amazingly crispy and good. A balsamic vinaigrette seemed like the perfect dressing to finish the salad off!
Caramelized Pumpkin and Gorgonzola Salad
ingredients
- 1 (3 pound) pumpkin
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 tablespoons honey
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoons sage (julienned)
- 4 cups salad greens such as baby arugula or baby spincah
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinaigrette
- 1/4 cup walnuts (toasted and coarsly chopped)
- 1/4 cup gorgonzola (crumbled)
directions
- Roast the pumpkin in a preheated 350F/180C oven on a baking sheet for 20 minutes.
- Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and cut each half into 4 wedges.
- Brush the wedges with oil, place them on their side on a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes. Flip and repeat on the other side.
- Brush the pumpkin flesh with the honey and season with salt and pepper.
- Broil the wedges, flesh side up until it startes to caramelize, about 2-3 minutes.
- Melt the butter in a pan.
- Add the sage and fry until it is light and crispy then set it aside.
- Toss the salad greens in the vinaigrette and divide between 4 plates.
- Add 2 wedges of caramelized pumpkin to each plate and sprinkle with walnuts, gorgonzola and fried sage.
Roasted Butternut Squash with Caramelized Onions, Gorgonzola and Crispy Fried Sage
Pear Salad with and Bacon, Gorgonzola and Candied Walnuts
Pumpkin and Cream Cheese Ravioli in Sage and Butter Sauce
Golden Beet Tatin with Goat Cheese
Roasted Butternut Squash and Pomegranate Salad
Festive Roast Pumpkin Salad
Roasted Pumpkin Quiche with Caramelized Onions, Gorgonzola and Sage
I made a salad like this recently with some apple cider vinaigrette dressing (farmer's market apple cider – delicious!) but I really love the presentation of this! It's very dramatic.
That looks mighty good! So delicious looking and sounding.
Cheers,
Rosa
Beautiful and delicious! I love the pumpkin with the gorgonzola – great flavor combination. Thanks for sharing!
It sure looks good Kevin.
That is a gorgeous looking fall plate!
What a gorgeous looking salad! Makes me wish (more than ever) that it was fall here.
With such presenation this would be hard to resist.
There are not enough "yummmm"s to tell you how I feel about this! I can't wait to try it!!! YUM!
Also, I just picked you for an award, pick it up on my blog! Happy Monday! 🙂
Love this photo shot Kevin- what a great recipe!
I have seen similar salds, but your presentation with the wedges is outstanding! Love it, great idea!
That's a great recipe idea. And excellent ingredients combination! Giorgia
this looks really good Kevin, I bet the roasting really brings out the flavour of the pumpkin, which i find pretty dull im afraid…
These days it seems as if I will eat anything that has "caramelized" in the title. Love the combination of flavors. Salads make me happy but hearty salads in the fall make me celebrate.
pumpkins are such a wonderful treat in so many different ways! lovely idea and gorgeous colors
Your recipes are really ticking all of my boxes. I love the sound of caramelized pumpkin.
What a tasty sounding salad! Love your presentation!
I haven't been able to find pumpkins downtown anywhere since Halloween!
Maybe I am just not looking in the right places?
Though I could probably eat that caramelized pumpkiny goodness all by itself, your salad does sound amazing Kevin!
oh my goodness, this looks incredible!
What type of knife did you use to cut the pumpkin? I have had such terrible luck, even with my heavy duty knives.
Kelly Dee: I stocked up on both pumpkins and on home made frozen pumpkin puree. 🙂 This recipe would also work well with other small thinner fleshed winter squash such as acorn squash.
I'm liking this pumpkin spree you have going on. It's very inspiring.
–Priyanka
This looks a lot like a roasted pumpkin salad I ordered recently in a restaurant! It was sort of "deconstructed", if you well. A big shmear of goat cheese, farm fresh argula, a big wedge of roasted winter squash a sprinkling of candied nuts. Delicious. I totally wasn't expecting to look that way so I think you're very creative to come up with that!
Oh that pumpkin has me salivating! This is almost too beautiful to eat.
Looks lovely and tasty. I'm in a complete pumpkin and winter squash mood right now and this salad looks great with the wedges!
This is what's happening for lunch here at CookSIster HQ 🙂 Thanks for the inspiration, as always!
That looks like a must-try salad. You have enough different things here that I won't get tired of the same dish before I finish the pumpkin! Thanks for some great looking recipes.
Create. Snap. Eat.: I use a regularly sharpened chefs knife but I still find it can be difficult to cut pumpkins and other winter squash.
Great idea! I changed it a little bit and used butternut pumpkin (or squash – don't know the difference), roquefort cheese and put maple syrup before I put it in the oven.