Beet & Butternut Squash Feast

Hello and welcome to the Hoban lab recipe blog! We are very passionate about food in our lab so we decided to take our passion for food to our website. We will be doing weekly posts with recipes and I (aka, Emily Schumacher, one of the current RAs in the Hoban lab) gets the honor of kicking off this new food blog. 

Last year (in Fall 2021) I started on a bit of a plant-based eating journey. Not only is it better for your body, but the recipes I've found are pretty cheap and simple to make. I've been having a really amazing time trying out recipes from the cookbook  "Rachel Ama's Vegan Eats." Her recipes are filling, colorful, tasty, and multi-sensory, as several of the featured recipes include a recommended song themed around the recipe. I like to blast the songs when I'm cooking the recipe so I get hyped to eat them!

The recipe I'm featuring this week is a beet and butternut squash salad, which has been such a smash hit with my partner, lab members, and family, that it has become a regular staple of my diet. I think that it's a combination of the ease of preparation, the diverse color palette of the salad, and the fact that it is just absolutely scrumptious for why it has been a hit with everyone I've made it for. 
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For this beet and butternut squash salad, Rachel Ama recommends listening to "All Night Long" by Faith Evans (featuring P. Diddy) and it will certainly get you hyped for the tangy and rich salad dish. 

The ingredients you'll need to make the salad are: 

• 3 large beets, peeled and chopped 
• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled, deseeded, and chopped
• Leaves from 2 rosemary sprigs, chopped
• 1 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 tbsp of maple syrup
• 1 cup of cooked brown lentils 
• Mixed salad leaves 
• One of cherry tomatoes 
• Sunflower seeds
• Fresh parsley 
• 1 container of pomegranate seeds (or seeds from 1 pomegranate) 
• Salt and black pepper

For the salad dressing you'll need:

• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 tbsp of tahini
• 1 tsp of maple syrup
• 1 tsp of Dijon mustard
• 1-2 tsp of balsalmic vinegar (to taste)

Beet & butternut squash salad pictured above - note, you can replace the sunflower seeds with peppitas if you have them laying around!

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Luckily for you - I've done all of the translating from metric units to US imperial measurements. 
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First, preheat your oven to 375F. Peel and chop the beets and butternut squash and then place them in a bowl with the chopped rosemary leaves, olive oil, maple syrup, and salt and pepper. Toss the veggies with these ingredients until they are drenched with the mix. Then, transfer the veggies to a baking sheet (or two) with parchment paper down. Whoever does your dishes will thank me for the reminder to put parchment paper down. Make sure the veggies are placed on the sheet in a single layer. If they start to pile up, start a second baking sheet - this will make sure all of the vegetables get a nice brown roast. Pop the sheets into the oven for 40 minutes - stopping at 20 minutes to flip the veggies. 

While the beets and butternut squash are roasting, cook the lentils. Take your cup of dried lentils and place them in a pot with 2 cups of water. Bring the pot to a rolling boil and then reduce the stovetop heat until the water is simmering, which you can then cover with a lid and let simmer for about 20 minutes, making sure to stir every now and then. Strain the lentils and place them in your salad bowl.

Next, start to create the salad. Rough chop mixed greens and cherry tomatoes place them in the final salad bowls. Combine all of the ingredients to make the salad dressing, adding salt and pepper to taste. 

Once the beets and butternut squash are cooked, combine in a serving bowl (or individual bowls) with the sunflower seeds, rough chopped parsley leaves, and pomegranate seeds and drizzle the vinaigrette over. 

Voila! You have a tasty and hearty butternut and beet salad.