Butternut Squash Winter Salad

I'm heading out of town for the holidays, which is a great excuse to clean out my fridge. I won't describe the horrors I encountered therein, but they were many and disgusting. On the upside, I realized that I had all the ingredients for this delicious salad, which my mom introduced me to last winter. 

Perfect Butternut Squash and Arugula Salad

(with pomegranate seeds and feta!)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and drizzle with olive oil. 

Peel and slice one butternut squash into uniform chunks. I like to peel the squash while it's whole with a sharp knife, but that might be because my vegetable peeler is wimpy.  Toss the chunks in the olive oil on the baking sheet.

In a small bowl, mix a few glugs of maple syrup (about 2 Tb) with a few shakes of cumin. Brush mixture over the butternut squash pieces and place baking sheet in oven.

After 10 minutes, take out the squash, flip the pieces, and brush them again. Bake for another 10 minutes, or until soft and starting to caramelize.

While squash cooks, wash arugula (I always skip this because I am lazy/Trader Joe's arugula seems pretty clean) and arrange on a serving platter. Crumble as much feta cheese as you want over the arugula. Sprinkle with pomegranate seeds or dried cranberries.*

When squash is cooked, arrange the pieces over the arugula. 

Drizzle with your dressing of choice and dig in! (I ALWAYS use Cardini's because

 it is the only dressing that matters, but there are several recipes floating around the internet for homemade vinaigrettes and such!)

*note: I have always used cranberries in this recipe, but I happened to buy a cheap pomegranate and thought I'd try it. It was delicious! I was excited to try a trick I read in an Ottolenghi cookbook: apparently if you whack the back of the pomegranate with a wooden spoon, the seeds will fall right out! Spoiler alert: this did not work. Maybe I wasn't whacking hard enough. I picked them out with my fingers, pretending to be Persephone the whole time, of course.

I don't even want to admit how much I eat this salad. I struggle through non-winter-squash months. If it wasn't for summer tomatoes, I don't know what I'd do!