Use Seasonal Ingredients In Your Salads

One of the greatest things about fall is the abundance of seasonal ingredients that are only fresh for a limited time. Any culinary academy student experiences a surge of excitement when the seasons change, due to the fact that their possibilities in the kitchen are about to get much more varied. A great way to change up your lunches this season and enjoy some of that seasonal produce is to work it into your salads. Here are some new ways to dress up those plain old leafy greens.

Roast your pumpkin seeds with or without their shells.

Add some squash
With so many varieties of squash abundant this time of year and so many ways to prepare them, the possibilities are seemingly endless. Though winter squash is too hard to eat raw, there are plenty of ways to prepare it and bring out the natural flavors. Roasting and sauteeing are both great ways to cook your squash that will still taste delicious when it’s served cold or at room temperature. Squash that’s in season in the fall and winter months include:

• Acorn.
• Autumn cup
• Butternut.
• Fairytale pumpkin.
• Gold nugget.
• Hubbard.
• Spaghetti.
• Sweet dumpling.

Add some crunch with pumpkin seeds
If you opt for baking some pumpkin to serve in your salads, chance are, you’ll have an abundance of pumpkin seeds at your disposal. You can bake and salt them to snack on by themselves, sprinkle the shelled seeds on your salad, or prepare some pepitas. If you’re up to the task of shelling all of your pumpkin seeds, you can enhance their flavor by toasting them on a skillet. According to Getty Stewart, simply tossing a single layer of pepitas on an oil-less skillet for about five minutes will give you the flavor you’re looking for.

Make a cider dressing
We all know how great the juicy crunch of an apple can be in your salad, but have you thought about making a salad dressing with apple cider? Use apple cider vinegar and olive oil as your base. For a sweeter flavor, use plenty of honey, but for a zesty dressing, let Dijon mustard take the wheel. Serve this dressing on a salad made up of crispy greens, sliced apples and your favorite seeds or nuts for some extra crunch.