Squash and Chickpea Salad with Spicy Tahini Dressing

A mini meal prep guide for 4 hearty, autumn lunches

Autumn harvest is upon us! The markets are overflowing with squashes of all shapes and sizes, root vegetables, cabbages, brussel sprouts, the new season’s apples, and the list goes on. This Roasted Squash and Chickpea Salad is one of my favourite autumn dishes, and Spicy Tahini Dressing knocks it out of the park. I’ve typed it up as a meal prep guide here because I love to pack this for my lunch, but you could definitely toss it all together in an enormous bowl and serve it up family style.

Here are a few notes about this guide:

1. Quantities are for One Person.  This makes 4, great lunch salads.  But you could also serve it as a big side salad for 6. 
2. Use a Food Processor for Faster Prep.  I like to shred cabbage using a mandolin, but the slicer blade in the food processor does a great job too.  If you’re using Brussel sprouts,  a food processor is a huge help. 
3. Pickle the beets a day ahead if you can.  If you can’t, give them a few hours to marinate before you box up your salads. These are raw pickled beets, no cooking required.
4. Cookin Beans.  Canned beans are awesome when you’re pressed for time, but cooking beans is actually very simple, cheaper, wastes less packaging, and you’ll cut out the sodium usually added to canned beans.  Try to build a habit around cooking a pot of beans once or twice per week so that you have them on hand.  Store them in the fridge covered with their cooking liquid.  This will come together much more quickly if your beans are already cooked!*
5. Dry Roasting.  I don’t use oil for roasting vegetables these days, especially when I’m using high heat because good oils go bad at high heat.  Try it!  You might be surprised by the results.
6. Different Energy Needs.  This makes 4 perfect portions for me, but they might not be perfect for you.  Not enough food in here?  Throw in some cooked kamut, quinoa, brown rice or barley, or have a piece of whole-grain bread on the side.  Not used to eating this much veg and it would feel like a chore to you?  Divide it up into more servings. You are the master of  your destiny!  😉

*If you want to learn more about cooking beans (and I know you do!) head on over to Joe Yonan’s site, you won’t be sorry. He’s the author of the FABULOUS book Cool Beans, and he can teach all of us a thing or two about preparing the humble legume.

Ingredients – Squash and Chickpea Salad with Spicy Tahini Dressing

Dry Goods 

• 1 cup uncooked chickpeas OR 2 cans of chickpeas (you’ll have a bit extra!) OR 2 cups pre-cooked chickpeas
•  1/2 cup tahini
•  8 ounces of raw walnuts
•  Dried Cranberries
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• Ground cumin
• Cayenne Pepper (optional)
• Bragg’s amino acids or tamari
• Turmeric (optional)

Produce

• 1 butternut squash OR 2 medium sweet potatoes OR other squash variety of your choice
• 2-3 medium beets
• I head lettuce,  any variety
• 1/2 Small head red cabbage
• 1 pint of Brussel sprouts OR small bunch of curly kale
• 1 large lemon (or bottled lemon juice) 
• 1 large or 2 medium apples

Method

First, make the pickled beets (a day ahead if you can!)

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• Heat the apple cider vinegar over medium heat until it starts to steam.  Don’t bring it all the way to a boil.   
• Wash and peel the beets.  Cut into fat matchsticks, and place them in a jar.
• Cover the beets completely with the warm vinegar.  If 1 cup wasn’t enough, heat some more, or top with water!  Screw on a cap and set aside to cool.  Once cool, store in the fridge. 

Next, bake the squash while cooking the beans

• Preheat the oven to 400° 
• Rinse your beans.  Cook them in a pressure cooker if you’ve got one – you know what to do.  Otherwise, add them to a medium sauce pot, and cover generously with cold water.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until beans are tender – approximately 40 minutes.   If using canned beans;  empty beans into colander, rinse well, and set aside.
• Peel and cube the butternut squash.  Spread evenly on a lined sheet pan.*   Throw it into the oven and roast until tender and edges  beginning to brown.  (You don’t have to wait for the oven to preheat all the way – just chuck ‘em in!) Should take between 30 and 40 minutes.  (If you’re using sweet potatoes, just scrub and cube them.  No need to peel.)

*If it seems like this is going to be too much squash, throw a portion of the cubed squash in the freezer! You can add it to a soup or a curry later.  

Now you’re ready to prep the Produce

• Shred the cabbage.
• Shred the Brussel sprouts or, if using kale, de-stem and finely chop the kale.  
• Wash and tear up the lettuce.  (Tip:  If you chop lettuce with a knife, the edges will brown within a day or two.  Instead, consider tearing up the lettuce to keep it looking fresh)
• Core and chop the apple(s)

Finally, make the Spicy Tahini Dressing

• Whisk everything together right in the measuring cup to save on dishes, or place everything into a mason jar (no measuring!) and shake.   If it’s too thick, add more water to achieve the consistency you want.
  • 1/2 cup tahini
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1 to 2 Tablespoons tamari or Bragg’s amino acids 
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1/2 to 1tsp cayenne pepper

All you have left to do is assemble!

• Portion everything out into 4, lidded storage containers. Probably not all of the beets, you’ll have extra beets.
• Top each salad off with 2 ounces of walnuts and a sprinkle of dried cranberries.
• Store the dressing separately. When you’re ready to serve, pour in 1/4 of the dressing, put the lid back on, and shake like crazy.

ENJOY!