Salads
Spiced Squash, Clementine & Bulghur Christmas Salad
A robust salad full of comfort and spice. The sweet squash is balanced by the sharpness of the clementines and pickled onion, while the bulghur, fruit and nuts add toothsome texture. An ideal starter for the big meal, or a perfect side to complement your Boxing Day leftovers. If you want to embellish this salad, it goes well with some crumbled blue, goat’s or feta cheese.
Cook's notes
Ideally you should let the squash and bulghur cool before mixing, but this dish can be thrown together warm if you’re in a hurry. The watercress will wilt slightly, which is fine. You can prepare all the components well in advance if you like – roast the squash, cook the bulghur, pickle the onions – so it’s ready to mix and serve. Store them in the fridge until needed.
Ingredients
- 100g bulghur wheat
- ½ cinnamon stick
- 4 cardamom pods
- 1 star anise
- 2 clementines
- 1 Butternut squash
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 1 red onion
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 40g toasted hazelnuts
- 25g dried cranberries
- small bunch of parsley
- 50g watercress
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- salt
- olive oil
Method
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Step 1
Preheat your oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Put a kettle on to boil.
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Step 2
Tip the bulghur wheat into a heatproof jug or bowl, along with the cinnamon, cardamom, star anise, a generous pinch of salt, and 1 tbsp of olive oil. Stir it together to coat the grains. Pour over enough boiling water to cover it by 2cm, cover with a plate, and set aside to soak and plump up while you continue.
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Step 3
Finely zest both clementines; keep the zest to one side. Remove what is left of the peel, then slice the clementines into thin discs. Peel, deseed and chop the Butternut into 3cm pieces. Pop them in a roasting tray with the sliced clementines, 2 tbsp of olive oil, and the mixed spice. Season and mix well. Transfer to the oven and roast for 25 mins, until the Butternut is tender and starting to colour at the edges.
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Step 4
Meanwhile, peel and finely slice the red onion; if it’s much bigger than a golf ball, you’ll only need to use half. Mix it in a small bowl with the vinegar. Leave to pickle, turning occasionally – the vinegar takes the raw edge away from the onions.
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Step 5
Coarsely chop the hazelnuts and cranberries. Pick the parsley leaves from the stalks and finely chop them.
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Step 6
When the Butternut is ready, you can choose to let it cool before building the salad (see cook’s note). To build, give the bulghur wheat a stir to separate the grains, and pluck out the spices. Add it to the tray along with the watercress, clementine zest, maple syrup and 1 more tbsp of olive oil. Mix well, taste, and tweak with more salt to your liking; if you want even more sharpness you can mix in a dash of the vinegar from the onions too.
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Step 7
To serve, pile it on to a serving plate and garnish artfully with the hazelnuts, cranberries, parsley and drained onions.