Autumn Harvest Salad
This tasty Autumn Harvest Salad has so many delicious Fall flavors in one satisfying entrée-sized salad. Hearty roasted butternut squash, crunchy apples, sweetened dried cranberries, creamy goat cheese, rich nutty pecans, and fresh spring mix all tossed in a maple balsamic vinaigrette make this salad filling and delicious! In my opinion, it tastes like the type of decadent salad you’d get in a restaurant. My husband loved it too and said it made a perfect lunch! As a bonus, this Autumn Harvest Salad is just 340 calories, or 8 WW Points for a satisfying entrée-sized serving on the current Weight Watchers program (or 9 Points if following the diabetic Weight Watchers plan). To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app, click here!
Build To Serve
This Autumn Harvest Salad comes together pretty easily and makes great leftovers. If you’re not planning to serve all four salads at once, you’ll still want to roast all the butternut squash, but then just build the salads you’re serving and store the ingredients for the remaining salads separately. Then when you’re ready to make additional servings everything will still be fresh and ready to go.
Ingredient Notes
- Butternut Squash: You can definitely buy a whole butternut squash, peel it and chop it up to use in this recipe. If you do, I recommend using the leftover squash to make my Butternut Squash Soup, it’s one of my favorites! However, if you want to save time you can also buy pre-chopped butternut squash like this if your grocery store has it in the produce department. I still chopped mine further to get it to ½ – ¾” cubes, but it was much faster than breaking down a whole squash!
- Apple: I used an Empire apple because I just happen to love that variety and almost always have it on hand. You can definitely use your own favorite variety in this salad, but I do suggest using a crispy one for crunch!
- Goat Cheese: You can buy this already crumbled in containers in the cheese section of most stores, but if you have it in a log feel free to just break it into crumbled with a fork. If you’re not a goat cheese fan, I think other crumbly cheeses like Feta or Blue cheese would work.
- Sweetened Dried Cranberries: I love the sweet and tart flavor these add to the salad! I used Craisins but any brand will work just as well. If you need a substitute, raisins will have a different flavor but still be tasty.
- Pecans: The crunch and nuttiness the pecans add works perfectly with the other flavors and textures in this salad. You can buy chopped pecans in the baking aisle or if you have pecan halves just chop them up a bit.
- Lettuce: I used a Spring Mix lettuce blend in this recipe and I think it pairs really well with the flavors represented here. You could alternatively use green leaf lettuce, a spinach blend, or romaine.
- Salad Dressing: I used Ken’s Lite Balsamic Vinaigrette here, which is easy to find in stores and tastes great in this salad! If you have a different preferred brand of light balsamic dressing, feel free to use that instead. I also enjoy Marzetti Simply Balsamic.
- Maple Syrup: I recommend using the real thing here! Just a teaspoon per salad mixed in with the balsamic vinaigrette adds tasty Fall flavor and sweetness to the dressing that is so good.
- For Added Protein: This meatless, vegetarian salad is terrific as-is, but sometimes I add grilled chicken if I have some on hand or want some extra protein in my salad. I really like the Fresh Additions Fully Cooked Chicken Breast Bites for this, which I find in a 10-pack at Costco. They’re super versatile and pre-portioned into the perfect amount to use on a salad, in a wrap, or on top of noodles or a grain bowl. I love having these on hand to add quick and easy protein to meals in a pinch!
More Tasty, Lightened-Up Salad Recipes
For more light and tasty salad recipes, check out my Pittsburgh Steak Salad, Beef Taco Salad, Black and Blue Steak Salad, Southwest Steak Salad, Buffalo Roasted Chickpea Salad, Mediterranean Chicken Chopped Salad, Mexican Street Corn Chicken Salad, Cobb Salad, Superfood Salad, Barbecue Ranch Chicken Salad, Thai Chicken Chopped Salad with Peanut Dressing, Strawberry Steak Salad, and many more in the salad section of my recipe index!
Autumn Harvest Salad
Ingredients
- 14 oz uncooked peeled butternut squash, cut into ½ - ¾”cubes (about 3 cups worth)
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 medium apple
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 12 cups spring mix lettuce blend
- 4 tablespoons sweetened dried cranberries, (such as Craisins)
- 4 tablespoons chopped pecans
- 2 oz crumbled goat cheese
- 8 tablespoons light balsamic vinaigrette, (such as Ken’s lite or Marzetti Simply)
- 4 teaspoons maple syrup
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or foil and set aside.
- Place the cubed butternut squash in a mixing bowl and drizzle with the olive oil. Stir to coat and then sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Stir to coat and then transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Spread the squash across the surface of the baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 30 minutes.
- When the squash is done, chop the apple into small pieces (should have about a cup of apple) and toss them in the lemon juice to prevent browning.
- For each salad, whisk together (or stir with a fork) two tablespoons of light balsamic vinaigrette and a teaspoon of maple syrup.
- To build each salad*, place 3 cups of lettuce into a bowl and top with 1/4 of the roasted squash (about 2 ounces), ¼ of the chopped apple (about ¼ cup), a tablespoon of dried cranberries, a tablespoon of chopped pecans, and ½ ounce of crumbled goat cheese. Drizzle each salad with two tablespoons of balsamic vinaigrette mixed with a teaspoon of maple syrup (I stirred mine together for even distribution like in step four, but you can drizzle them separately since everything will end up mixed together). Toss everything together to coat with the dressing before serving.*Build each salad to serve! If you’re only serving one or two salads at a time, I’d recommend storing the leftover components separately in the fridge until you’re ready to use.
Notes
340 calories, 41 g carbs, 23 g sugars, 17 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 7 g protein, 7 g fiber, 456 mg sodium (from myfitnesspal.com) Weight Watchers Points Plus:
9 per serving (PP calculated using a Weight Watchers PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition info)
