Winter Vegetable Salad with Persimmon, Walnut and Feta

Warm winter salads make a delicious side dish and make the most of seasonal produce.    This winter vegetable salad also makes the most of the beautiful fruit the persimmon. This beautiful deep orange fruit is sweet and crisp and provide a source of vitamin C, vitamin A and dietary fibre.  Now is the time to try persimmons as they area only available for a short season – from May to mid-August  Go to your local supermarket or fruit shop and get some today!

They can be peeled and eaten like an apple, add them to smoothies, cook them, slice and add to salads, chopped and used in a salsa – there are lots of ways to use this versatile fruit.

This recipe for winter vegetable salad with persimmon, walnut and feta makes a nice side dish to a crispy roasted chicken.   And it’s great for leftovers the next day too. 

Here’s the recipe.  PS if you hate sprouts, just leave them out 🙂

Winter Vegetable Salad with Persimmon, Walnut and Feta

Ingredients:

1/2 cauliflower
300g brussels sprouts
1/2 butternut squash pumpkin
1 tablespoon oil
Moroccan spice mix – Ras el Hanout (found in the herb/spice section)
2 persimmons
2 tablespoons dried cranberries
1 bag of baby spinach
80g feta cheese
1/4 cup walnut halves

Dressing:

1 tablespoon neutral flavoured oil
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
1 teaspoon of honey

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.   Cut the cauliflower into small florets, and halve the Brussels sprouts.  Peel the butternut squash, scoop out the seeds and then cut the flesh into small pieces around 1cm thick. Place the vegetables on a roasting dish and drizzle with oil.  Sprinkle the cauliflower with the Moroccan spice mix.  Place in the oven for 20 minutes, turning once during cooking.  After 20 minutes, you may need to remove the cauliflower and sprouts then cook the pumpkin for another 10 minutes. Test the pumpkin by poking it with a fork.  If you can easily push the fork through, it’s cooked.

Peel the persimmons, cut off the ends then into rounds, then quarters.

On a platter or bowl, spread over the baby spinach.  Arrange the roasted vegetables and persimmons on top, then sprinkle over the feta cheese, walnuts and cranberries.

To make the dressing, put the ingredients in a small jar and shake to combine.

Serve the salad straight away with a drizzle of the dressing.

 

This post was sponsored by NZ Persimmons

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