Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Food Glorious Food

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Roasted Squash, Spinach, Walnut, and Cranberry #salad #recipe @lucyburdette #cleansweepweek

LUCY BURDETTE: are you a fan of Pinterest? I confess that I find leafing through food boards very relaxing – almost like the effect that coloring books seem to have on other people. Of course I have boards for my Key West books, and mystery lovers kitchen, and the writers life, but I also have a catchall board called "Food, glorious food." And here is where I pin photos of dishes that looks delicious. Most of them are recipes that I think I could tweak to become low sodium. When I needed a new idea for a New Year's day side dish, that would include the cranberries I overbought from King Arthur flour, and the couscous buried at the back of my cupboard, I went to this board. And there I found a recipe from Gimme Some Oven that looked like a good start. She used cheese and commercial packets of toppings, both of which I removed. And I changed the kale to spinach...

And so here is what I offer for our curiosities from the cupboard week!

Ingredients

One small butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and diced into half inch cubes
2 tablespoons olive oil
Three-quarter cup couscous
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 to 3 cups fresh spinach
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup walnuts
Freshly ground pepper
Benton's Table Tasty

Lemon mustard vinaigrette (Whisk together 1 teaspoon good grainy mustard, the juice of half a Meyer lemon, and olive oil to taste)

Douse the squash cubes in olive oil, sprinkle with fresh ground pepper and Benton's table tasty, and roast in a 350 oven for 15 minutes. Remove the pan, stir the squash, and add the walnuts. Roast for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile bring the broth to simmer in a small pan, and add the couscous. Remove the pan from the heat and allow the couscous to cool.

Wash and dry the spinach and add to the salad bowl. When the squash and nuts and couscous are cool, distribute them over the top of the spinach. Sprinkle the cranberries over top of that.

When you're ready to serve, add the lemon mustard vinaigrette and toss well. Of course this would also be tasty with some added cheese if you're not watching sodium, say feta or goat or what used to be my favorite, gorgonzola.