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Warming Winter Salad with Pear

I am so blessed to have friends who love to cook, especially cook healthy like me. My friend Stacey from http://www.kevin-stacey.com and I were really craving salad. However, we really didn’t want something cold. It’s cold enough! In looking around the grocery store we looked at what was in season and decided to throw a couple things together and see how it came out.

Well, we did a GOOD job. This salad is seriously fantastic. Neither of us has really experimented with making our own dressings so we decided to find the best store bough version we could find. While Drew’s uses canola oil (GMO), it tastes really good. One of these days I’ll get around to creating my own delicious poppy seed dressing. Anyways, we are super excited to share this easy and delicious recipe with you. The best part is, you can use the other half of the acorn squash and roast more brussel sprouts than you need for uses in other recipes or as sides later in the week. Cook once, eat twice! Or you know, make a bigger version of this salad and take to work during the week. Whatever you want to do 🙂

Warming Winter Salad with Pears

Makes 2 Servings

  • 4-6 cups baby kale
  • 1 Red Bartlett Pear, diced
  • 1/2 Acorn Squash
  • 1 cup baby brussels sprouts or 8 regular sized brussels sprouts
  • EVOO in a mister
  • Drew’s Poppy Seed Dressing
  • Garlic Salt to taste (optional)

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  2. With a really sharp knife, cut off the top of the squash then cut in half length wise (top to bottom). Scoop out the seeds and strings and mist with evoo. Place bowl side down in a glass dish with 1/2 -1 in water. OR if you don’t have a really sharp knife, stab the whole acorn squash several times and place directly on the oven rack. Total roasting time with be approximately 40 minutes. It will be done cooking with it is easily pierced with a knife.
  3. On a baking sheet, lay down parchment paper. Then take the brussels sprouts, whatever size you bought and cut in half or quarters (depending on how big or small they are.) Mist with EVOO and sprinkle lightly with garlic salt. Roast for approximately 25-30 minutes or until done. You do not want them to turn brown.
  4. Once both the squash and brussels sprouts are done and out of the oven. Let them cool while you place the baby kale on two plates.
  5. Remove the core from the pear then dice into 1/2 inch pieces. Place on your plate of greens.
  6. Chop half of the acorn squash into 1 inch pieces and place on salad along with the brussels sprouts.
  7. Add dressing to taste (we used about 2 tbsp) and, if you like, sprinkle with garlic salt.

Why it’s healthy:

Kale: Kale is a superfood. It even has its own day dedicated to it! It is rich in vitamins K, A, C, manganese and a good source of B vitamins, iron, and calcium. It is anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer. It helps detox unwanted chemicals and such from our bodies as well. It is low in calories, having only 36 calories per cup and 5g of fiber. The best part is that it is in season right now! Best flavor and texture is in the winter.

Acorn Squash: My favorite winter squash. It is low in calories with only 75 per cup, and high in nutrients. Rich in vitamins A, C, B6 and potassium. An excellent source of fiber with 5g per half cup. Fiber is essential to our health as it helps regulate glucose levels and cholesterol, and aid in achieving a flat stomach.

Brussels Sprouts: These tasty little balls of goodness have special cholesterol-lowering benefits, improve the stability of DNA in our cells, are anti-cancer and are extremely nutrient dense. They are rich in vitamins K and C (perfect for cold and flu season), also contain folate, calcium, magnesium, choline, and potassium. One cup is only 37 calories too. Can’t beat it!

Bartlett Pears: Rich in anti-oxidants, are anti-inflammatory, full of filling fiber and is said to be one of the easiest fruits to digest. One pear has 100 calories.

This wonderful salad not only tastes good, it’s good for you! It’s also a great way to detox and, salads are also a great way to help us lose weight. Not that any of us are thinking about that just yet. That’s New Years right? 🙂

 

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About Us

Hi friend!

I’m Marian Mitchell, Health Coach, Chronic Illness Warrior, Mom, and Food Lover. I help you navigate the food and lifestyle side of Chronic Disease Management with coaching, meal plans, recipes, podcast, and this blog. You can thrive without eating the same 4 things every day. I’m here to show you how.

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