Wilted Greens Salad

Wilted Spinach and Kale salad with Butternut Squash, toasted Almonds, and Parmesan Cheese; Topped with a Lemon Honey vinaigrette. I added a couple mini slices of buttered homemade 9grain bread to complete that tasty dinner.

Farmers market finds:
Spinach (3cups, stems removed and leaves chopped or torn to bite size)
Kale (2cups flat Kale, but curly would work too, stems removed and chopped or torn to bite size)
Lemon (juice from 1/2 lemon, about 1 1/2tbs)
Raw Desert Flower Honey (1-2tbs, any honey should work here, but the floral flavor worked really good with the lemon :)

Local co-op:
Local Parmesan Cheese (1/4 cup grated)
Raw Organic Almonds (3/4 cup toasted and roughly chopped)
Organic Olive Oil (5tbs for dressing, plus 2tbs for sautéing and wilting)

Safeway (local chain grocery):
Organic Garlic (2 cloves minced)
Spicy Brown Mustard (2tsp)

Gift from a friend:
Butternut Squash (1 1/2 cups or 1/2 of a small squash cubed)


Make dressing and pre heat oven to 425 degrees first:
Whisk together 5tbs olive oil, garlic, lemon, honey, and mustard, set aside.

Prep squash and greens (**and almonds if your toasting them now)

Roast squash for 10min, turn and cook additional 10min in pre heated oven after getting a little oil (1tbs) and seasoning (salt and pepper to taste) on squash.

A trick: When I don't want to heat my house up I cheat with "roasting" veggies by microwaving them with nothing on them until they're almost done. I then put them in a sauté pan with a little oil and seasoning to get that tasty flavor from browning. Hehe.

**you can toast almonds on the stove or in the oven. I like roasting them whole (it gives me more error room). Keep an eye on them on medium high heat or 350 degrees in oven until color darkens and you can smell them. Once toasted, let them cool a bit before coarsely chopping.

Almost to the last step: heat remaining 1tbs oil in sauté pan/skillet on high. Add spinach and kale, cook for 1-2minutes until bright green and slightly wilted.

Let all ingredients cool slightly, about 5minutes, before combining.

Finally: combine all of that whole veggie goodness coating it with the dressing. Once dressed you can add the parmesan to the whole salad or sprinkle it onto each serving and enjoy!



Recipe adapted from Bon Appetite