Roasted Golden Beet and Winter Squash Salad Recipe (2024)

Rather than toss the vegetables with the oil and spices on the baking sheet, do it in a bowl. The ingredients will combine better and you'll get more oil and spices on the vegetables and less on the pan. I would also add some fingerling potatoes to the mix, especially if the salad is intended to be a meal in itself.

Susan - you could try some soy sauce or miso paste instead of the anchovies - they have a similar umami profile.

What could be substituted for the anchovies? The recipe sounds fabulous but I have a fish allergy.

Susan, I think the recipe works without anchovies, but sometimes I use minced capers to add a little salty richness in their place.

Jean: Just put the whole butternut squash into the oven. After 30-45 minutes or so, you can carefully remove it, easily slice it open, remove the seeds, add some s & p, and then put it back into the oven, cut side done, until it reaches desired doneness. No need for wrestling with a hard squash!

I made this recipe almost to the letter, using mint instead of cilantro, a dry bay leaf, and roasted, salted pumpkin seeds, which is what we had in our pantry. My husband LOVED it, and I noticed that my four year old ate most of his plate too. Also, it presents beautifully, with all of those colors on the plate. Me personally? I am traditional in that I like salads with a little bit of acidity. I may try a hint of apple cider vinegar next time. I will definitely be making this again.

I made this exactly as written except for the greens (I used red leaf lettuce, due to teens), and frankly it just didn’t live up to expectations. The squash got mushy when stirred in, the cilantro seemed to conflict with the delicate flavors, and my 14 year old thought the pumpkin seeds tasted of ‘wood chips.’ Everyone hated something about it, including me. More lime juice? More radishes? Carrots or parsnips as a sub for the squash? I’m not sure I’ll put the effort in to experiment with it.

I'd suggest some dark miso to sub in for the anchovy.

Made this recipe exactly as written and it was just wonderful! Substantial enough for a main dish, or a nice side salad in smaller portions. Loved the interplay of all the different flavors, and the roasted radishes (a first for me) were a delightful surprise. This is a new house favorite.

Made this into a bowl, tossed with warm farro and wilted beet greens (instead of frisée) and it was a spectacular hit.

We topped it with some lime/mayo/jalapano marinated shrimp, and put the whole thing over baby greens…. Delightful

David made without sardines. Substituted capers. Good warm over arugula DM next day, cold over spinach

Used pistachios in place of pumpkin seeds and grapefruit rather than orange (it’s what I had). Fabulous!!

I didn’t have frisée on hand, so substituted radicchio (a combo of chioggia and rosalba). The radicchio was the perfect bitter foil to the sweetness of the delicata.Golden beets were the perfect earthy backbone; I imagine red beets would be overwhelmingly cloying even with the radicchio. A hard, dark toast on the pumpkin seeds gave it a umami punch. Don’t skip that.Many orthogonal flavor profiles in this dish — high stakes and high reward.

Outstanding! I followed the advice to leave out the oil in the dressing, and it worked! Next time, I'm going to double the recipe, including the vinaigrette, but add the oil at 1/4 cup. I used parmesan but will try pecorino Romano in the next version.

Made this without the radishes (they looked sad by the time we got around to cooking it), subbed massaged kale (a bunch in the garden) for frisee, and forwent anchovies (for no good reason, really). It came out really nice, though i would up the salt content a bit, sans anchovies, and add a bit more acid to the dish overall. If having people over, I'd consider it a side. The colors are beautiful, and I like the use of fall vegetables. It's easy to scale - I'll be making a huge batch soon.

Absolutely loved this. Saw other notes and added a splash of vinegar to final salad but otherwise prepared per recipe.

I subbed roasted cauliflower for the beets(because that’s what I had in hand) and cooked them with the radishes for 35 minutes. This salad is delicious.

Made this into a bowl, tossed with warm farro and wilted beet greens (instead of frisée) and it was a spectacular hit.

Made this as written. The textures were excellent. I really liked the method of roasting the beets wrapped in foil and then uncovering them and raising the heat to get the colour and caramelization. I used mint as the herb and found it a little weird… not bad, but unexpected. I’m still trying to decide if I loved it or tolerated it. Agree with suggestion to toss the beets in the dressing in a bowl instead of on the baking sheet. To save dishes I used the same bowl later for the dressing and

Delicious but a LOT of work for a salad…would be great to find ways to not need 3 different roasting steps for each vegetable

Beets

I’ve made this salad regularly for several years, and get rave reviews. Ottolenghi also has recipes where you roast vegetables with herbs and citrus, and the result is a combination of delicious, complex flavours. I’ve tried substituting the orange and lime (when I didn’t have them), it’s not as good. Takes a bit of time to make, but this salad is worth it!

This was great! I DID however sub onions and cauliflower for radishes, dill for cilantro, sunflower seeds for pumpkin seeds, capers for anchovies, and omitted the cheese. Was it the same recipe? ...Probably not, but I loved the warm veggies getting tossed in a citrus-forward dressing atop a bed of arugula. After one serving I added a runny egg to my second to beef it up. Already planning on making this again.

Altogether, I thought this was a pretty good recipe, but there’s much too much oil involved and it lacked a bit of acidity. When I make it again, I probably won’t put any oil in the dressing and instead use the oil from the veggies (and that leftover on the pan) to dress the salad. I also might add some balsamic, or more lime juice, to give it a bit more of a kick. We’re a vegan household, so I replaced the anchovies with minced capers and it worked out great!