Sweet pumpkin and cream cheese roasted in garlic with bacon, nuts and juicy greens. You'll never have leftovers with this luscious winter salad!
Ingredients
- 750 g butternut pumpkin
- 250 g cream cheese chilled
- 2 tbs crushed garlic
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 4 bacon rashers
- 1 cup cashews roasted
- 250 g snow peas
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
Method
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Step 1Preheat oven to 200C.
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Step 2Peel and cut pumpkin into large cubes - approximately 5cm.
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Step 3Combine garlic and oil, and pour into base of a large ceramic/glass roasting dish.
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Step 4Toss pumpkin through oil and garlic, spread in a single layer and roast for 40 minutes, or until slightly tender and starting to colour.
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Step 5Cut cream cheese into 8 then split it down the middle to make 16 small cubes.
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Step 6Add cheese to pumpkin and return to oven for a further 15 minutes, or until both cheese and pumpkin are tender and golden brown.
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Step 7Remove from oven and stand for 10 minutes only.
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Step 8Carefully pour off and reserve the garlic-y oil after 10 minutes (leaving it on will cause the pumpkin to absorb it and become greasy).
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Step 9Grill the bacon until crispy and crumble into small pieces.
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Step 10Top and tail snowpeas and blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds or until bright green.
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Step 11Arrange pumpkin and cheese on serving platter, scatter bacon, cashews and snowpeas on top.
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Step 12Whisk reserved garlic flavoured oil with balsamic vinegar and drizzle over salad to serve.
Recipe Notes
You can substitute a lot of the ingredients to make variations: pancetta instead of bacon, green beans or asparagus instead of snow peas, smashed macadamias instead of cashews.
I've also tried fetta instead of cream cheese, but with the bacon, it seems to be a bit too salty.
This salad works well warm, or at room temperature.
If you like the sound of this recipe, you might also like this Pumpkin, Fetta and Rocket Salad.
Recipe Reviews (48)
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