Roast pumpkin, chicken and feta salad
50 min · 44 g protein · 398 cals / serving
The café salad Australians order again and again: sweet, caramel-edged roast butternut pumpkin and grilled chicken over peppery rocket, baby spinach and cherry tomatoes, with salty feta, toasted pepitas, red onion and a honey-balsamic dressing.
Ingredients
- 800 g butternut pumpkin butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 3 cm chunks
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 3/4 tsp salt, divided
- 3 small breasts (650 g) chicken breast
- 1 tsp paprika, smoked
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- a spray cooking spray
Dressing
- 4 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp honey
Salad
- 150 g arugula, rocket
- 100 g baby spinach
- 450 g grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
- 40 g feta cheese, Danish or Greek, crumbled
- 8 g raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas), toasted
Steps
- Heat the oven to 390°F fan-forced. Toss the pumpkin with the oil, cumin and half the salt on a lined tray and roast for 30–35 minutes, turning once, until tender and caramelised at the edges.
- Meanwhile, rub the chicken with the paprika, garlic powder and the rest of the salt and spray with oil. Cook on a hot chargrill pan or barbecue for 5–6 minutes each side, until 165°F in the thickest part. Rest for 5 minutes, then slice.
- Shake the dressing ingredients together in a jar.
- Toss the rocket, spinach, tomatoes and onion with half the dressing and spread on a platter. Top with the warm pumpkin and the chicken, scatter with the feta and pepitas, and drizzle with the rest of the dressing.
Good to know
Warm or cold?
Both. Straight from the oven the pumpkin wilts the leaves a little and the feta softens; cold, it is a sturdy lunchbox salad. Keep the dressing separate until you eat it.
Which pumpkin?
Butternut holds its shape and roasts sweetest. Kent (Jap) pumpkin is good too; leave the skin on, it softens in the oven.
Per
- Calories
- 87
- Protein
- (45%)
- 10 g
- Fat
- (26%)
- 2 g
- Carbohydrates
- (30%)
- 7 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 2 g
- Sodium
- 141 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. General guidance, not medical advice. Talk to your prescriber. How
As written, 1594 kcal goes into the pot and 2159 g of ingredients comes out as about 1840 g of food: 87 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.