It has been tradition for 11 years now. Every year, one Saturday in December, my girlfriends and I, along with our husbands gather for Christmas dinner. It’s strictly an adults-only event (although we’ve made exceptions for babies) and each year we take turns hosting it.

The host is responsible for the venue (their home), setting the scene and the ham and the rest of us take our pick of salad, bread, dessert or nibbles (this year we added games!).

Would you believe that when we were asked what we wanted to bring I actually volunteered for salad? It’s a bit unheard of for this former salad non-lover but when the big boy and I were in Sydney recently, a friend made THE BEST SALAD and I just had to recreate it.

Pumpkin spinach and goats cheese salad.

It is so so delicious. As I was throwing it together I was batting Will away after he pinched a bit from the bowl and was hooked.

Another delicious salad is my healthy potato salad.

Everyone, even the husbands at the party loved it and asked for the recipe. I added a festive touch with the pomegranate (totally took a risk there!) which was like the magic key to bringing it all together, even though it was already delicious.

You could skip the toasting the seeds bit but I love a bit of extra crunch. It’s the perfect festive salad! If you wanted it warm you could mix up the pumpkin and couscous when it’s warm and then toss in the rest of the goodness just before serving.

You might also like my pesto pasta salad.

Pumpkin spinach and goats cheese salad

 

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Prep time

1 hour

Cook time

40 mins

Total time

1 hour 40 mins

 

Author: Claire K Creations

Serves: 10

Ingredients

• 2 cups dry pearl couscous
• 500g pumpkin, cut in 2cm cubes
• 1 sprig rosemary
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 200g green beans
• 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
• 200g baby spinach
• Juice of one lemon
• 100g goat's cheese, crumbled
• Handful of pomegranate seeds (optional)

Instructions

1. Cook the couscous according to the instructions on the packet.
2. Once cooked, transfer to an extra large tupperware container and stir through some olive oil to stop the grains sticking (give it a stir every now-and-then as it cools).
3. Spread the cubed pumpkin on a lined oven tray and drizzle with olive oil then sprinkle with the leaves of the rosemary sprig.
4. Cook for 40 minutes or until golden at 180C fan-forced.
5. Leave to cool.
6. Rinse and trim the beans then pop them in a bowl and cover with freshly-boiled water.
7. Leave for 1 minute then tip out the water and cover the beans with ice.
8. Leave to cool.
9. In a small saucepan, cook the pumpkin seeds with a splash of olive oil until golden then remove to a plate to cool.
10. Once everything has cooled, combine the couscous, pumpkin, beans, spinach and lemon in the large tupperware container then transfer to a salad bowl.
11. Top with goat's cheese, pumpkin seeds and pomegranate then drizzle with lemon juice.

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