The Cotswolds Inspired Fall Salad
Salads are my jam. To me, they are really a very important part of a meal, but I even more, I love a salad that is a meal in itself. I traveled with my family last year over Thanksgiving to London, and then to the Costswolds where we stayed in a little town, in a beautiful Air BNB (a converted stone goat barn!), and I had one of the best versions of an autumn salad I have ever had!
The Cotswolds are almost 800 square miles in size, so there are so many little towns for lots to be discovered. I was panicked when we got close to our departure date that we weren’t in the ‘it’ spots, but I quickly realized that ALL of the small villages are so charming and there is so much to be discovered. I’m sort of an off the beaten path kinda gal, so what turned out to be a little panick in the beginning, proved to be the best for me and my family.
Once we arrived at our Air BNB our gracious host gave us some suggestions for places to eat and visit. One of them being this great restaurant, The Tollgate Inn. There I discovered their version of an Autumn salad.
Their salad featured roasted squash, roasted red onion, grains, flaked almond, rocket greens or sweet baby greens, feta and beetroot, tossed with their housemade vinaigrette.
I would return home to make my own version with a white balsamic vinaigrette (my go-to). The mix of flavors makes this type of salad one of my favorites all year, and I get so excited to make as we start to have shorter days and cozier evenings.
The Recipe Details
Ingredients
Roasted cubed butternut squash
Quartered red onion
Cubed beet
Farro
Apple Cider Vinegar
Grains
Flaked almond
Rocket greens or sweet baby greens
Feta
Olive Oil
Kosher Salt
Pepper
Vinaigrette
3 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar
½ tsp. Dijon mustard
Sea salt and pepper
Instructions
For my version of this salad, I roasted cubed butternut squash, quartered red onion and cubed beet together in a 425 oven tossed with olive oil, kosher salt & pepper. 25 minutes is usually a good start, you want them a little caramelized on the edges.
I also boiled some farro in chicken stock (better than bouillon paste) and a splash of apple cider vinegar (apple cider is good too, and you can add more than a splash!)
Mix up your vinaigrette ingredients. Start light. You can’t go wrong with this white balsamic…it makes every salad so easy. If you don’t feel like mixing up a dressing, just drizzle on some olive oil and white balsamic dressing on to your salad.
Once your roasted veg are out of the oven let them cool a bit before tossing with remainder of ingredients. If you want to share this salad at a dinner party or Thanksgiving, you can prepare the roasted vegetables & grain ahead of time, and bring them separately…but not refrigerated….just keep at room temp. Then toss all together when you are ready to serve. So delicious.
Visit the market to shop my favorites to make this dish!
-Shelby