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Roasted Fall Salad with Maple Vinaigrette Dressing

5 from 3 votes
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posted: 11/13/17

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This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy

This Roasted Fall Salad with Maple Vinaigrette Dressing is such a flavorful and delicious side. It is fancy enough for a holiday but easy enough for a weeknight side. It is also hearty enough to stand on it’s own as an entree. It is full of roasted squash, roasted corn, feta, cranberries, and sunflower seeds! This would be great as part of your Thanksgiving menu with this amazing turkey. If you are looking for another great salad, try this apple pecan fall salad.

On a white plate, the Roasted Fall Salad with beautiful colors from cranberries, feta cheese, corn, greens, and butternut squash has the Maple Vinaigrette Dressing being poured on top.

Last night as I was falling asleep, it hit me (IN A PANIC) that next week is Thanksgiving!

Do you do that? Think of something as you are falling asleep and then suddenly you are WIDE AWAKE?

Which . . . it would be fine if next week was just Thanksgiving. But you guys. That means that we are like days away from the start of the Christmas season and doing ALL the things.

An overhead photo of the beautiful colorful Fall Salad which has feta cheese, butternut squash, cranberries, corn, greens, and sunflower seeds.

I was talking with some friends the other day and we were talking about how we just wished that the Christmas season was just fun. How it didn’t feel rushed and crazy and too much. How it felt as magical as an adult as it does as a child. So I’m sitting here this morning, trying to figure out a way to make that happen.

Maybe send out Christmas cards as soon as I can?

Maybe get all the neighbor/teacher gifts ready . . . like tomorrow?

I don’t know. But I just had this realization during that conversation with my friends that I have barely any Christmases left with my kids still feeling like it is SUPER magical. I know that when they are teenagers, it will still be one of my very favorite times of year, but it will be different.

So. I’m open to suggestions from all you seasoned parents out there. How do you keep the house clean, the kids fed, bring them to all their activities, get all the gifts, get ALL THE STUFF, and still make it feel magical and stress free for yourself?

The answer has to be more than extra rum in your eggnog. ????

On a white plate, the Roasted Fall Salad with beautiful colors from cranberries, feta cheese, corn, greens, and butternut squash.

So, still in time for Thanksgiving, you have to check out this roasted fall salad made absolutely perfect with maple vinaigrette dressing.

It starts out by roasting some butternut squash, adding in some roasted corn, and then perfecting it with some dried cranberries, salted sunflower seeds, and feta. Finally you whip up some super easy maple vinaigrette dressing to top it off. The flavors of this salad are absolute perfection! I may or may not have eaten that entire plate. (I don’t want to talk about it . . . )

This salad is crazy good. It would be the perfect salad to bring to Thanksgiving, or to just have as dinner.

Am I a weirdo because salad is making me drool?

If you are looking for more great salads, try this Candied Pecan, Pear, & Pomegranate Salad, this Brussels Sprout Salad, and this Apple Walnut Quinoa Salad.

You can't beat this fall salad! It's like a harvest on a plate.
5 from 3 votes

Roasted Fall Salad with Maple Vinaigrette Dressing

Serves: 4 people
(tap # to scale)
Prep: 1 hour
This Roasted Fall Salad with Maple Vinaigrette Dressing is such a flavorful and delicious side.  It is fancy enough for a holiday but easy enough for a weeknight side.  It is also hearty enough to stand on it's own as an entree.

Ingredients

  • 1 butternut squash roasted and cooled (see note)
  • 6 cups mixed greens
  • 1 cup roasted corn see note
  • 1/3 cup craisins
  • 1 cup feta cheese
  • 1/2 cup salted sunflower seeds

Maple Vinaigrette Dressing

  • 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

  • Mix together the ingredients for the dressing.
  • In a large bowl toss the ingredient for the salad.  Serve the dressing on the side.

Notes

This salad serves two people as an entree, four people as hearty side, and eight people when there many sides.
To roast the squash, peel, take out the seeds, and cut into 1 inch pieces.  Toss with 1 TBSP olive oil, a little salt and pepper, and spread over an aluminum foil lined baking sheet.  Bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees.
You can find roasted corn in the frozen section of the grocery store.  If you can't find it, grab 1 cup of frozen regular corn and toss it into a skillet with just the slightest bit of olive oil and toss over medium heat until roasted.
Author: Lisa Longley
You can't beat this fall salad! It's like a harvest on a plate.

did you make this

Roasted Fall Salad with Maple Vinaigrette Dressing

I'd love to see what you made! Tag me @lisasimplejoy and hashtag it #simplejoyrecipes!

Looking for more fall flavors?

Apple Pecan Fall Salad

Turkey Butternut Squash Casserole

Brown Sugar Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Turkey Dumpling Soup

On a white plate, the Roasted Fall Salad with beautiful colors from cranberries, feta cheese, corn, greens, and butternut squash has the Maple Vinaigrette Dressing being poured on top.

Hi! I'm Lisa Longley, and I am committed to giving you simple dinner ideas and recipes that are easy to make; recipes that will fill your home with joy. I am the owner and author of SimpleJoy.com and I'm so glad that you are here.

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  1. averie @ averie cooks says

    I would eat this every day! This is my dream salad!

    • Lisa Longley says

      Me too!! I ate almost that whole plate myself!

  2. Angela Sommers says

    This salad looks delicious! By the way, thank you for all your recipes, they are perfect for my life -simple yet so tasty and healthy and just plain wonderful.
    This salad! Looks perfect for in between the big holiday feasts…..fancy enough to please visitors, yet not too much for the waistline…..
    Happy Thanksgiving!

  3. Kath Mendez says

    5 stars
    It does look appetizing! Hope you could give a rough estimate of your cost. Anyways, thank you for sharing this!

    • Lisa Longley says

      Hi Kath, I’m so sorry, I don’t have a cost estimate on this. I can tell you that it was totally delicious and worth every penny though.

  4. Diane Wilkins says

    5 stars
    Yummy! That salad looks absolutely stunning. I’ve been making a couple of your recipes recently and I can’t wait to make this one for my family.

  5. Karen Howard says

    5 stars
    Thank you for the Turkey Butternut Squash Casserole & the Fall Salad recipes! They both look sooo delicious! Have a Very Happy Thanksgiving!

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