In a large bowl, combine roasted Brussels sprouts, roasted butternut squash, boiled and diced beets, dried cranberries, and lightly toasted pecans.
Add salad dressing. You have 3 options. Option 1. Drizzle with balsamic glaze. Option 2. Drizzle with high quality aged balsamic vinegar made in Italy. Option 3. Or, toss with balsamic vinegar + olive oil.
Do You Serve It Warm or Cold?
This dish is best to be served warm, hot, or at room temperature. It tastes the best when served immediately after making it.
Can You Make it Ahead?
Combine all the salad ingredients (except pecans) in a large airtight container: roasted butternut squash, roasted Brussels sprouts, cooked diced beets, and dried cranberries. Keep refrigerated for up to 2 days, until ready to serve.
When ready to serve, reheat the salad in the oven on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Add toasted pecans last, right before serving. Drizzle with the salad dressing of your choice.
Note: if you plan to make this a day or two ahead, don’t add nuts. Add nuts only when ready to serve (to make sure they are crunchy).
How to Store and Reheat Winter Vegetable Salad
Store refrigerated. Store this salad refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Don’t add nuts. Add pecans only right before serving to ensure they are not soggy.
Reheat the salad in the oven. Reheat this dish in a shallow pan, such as a sheet pan or a sheet cake pan lined with parchment paper. Spread the ingredients on a parchment paper-lined sheet pan. Reheat for about 15 minutes in the preheated oven at 350 F. Add toasted pecans last, only when ready to serve.
Reheat in a microwave oven. Microwave briefly for about 30 seconds until the salad is warm or is brought to room temperature.
Substitutions
Nuts. Use walnuts, cashews, pumpkin seeds, or pine nuts instead of pecans. If you can find candied pecans or candied walnuts – those would work great, too!
Dried Fruit. Don’t have or don’t want to use dried cranberries? The best substitutions would be dried cherries, chopped up dried figs, dried blueberries.
Butternut Squash. You can easily use roasted sweet potatoes instead of roasted butternut squash.
Recipe Notes
To save time, roast both Brussels sprouts and butternut squash on 2 separate baking sheets at the same time, on the same rack in the oven.
Boil beets in advance as they will take time to cool off before you can peel and dice them. Or, at the very least, boil them at the same time as you roast the veggies.
Soak dried cranberries briefly in hot water to plump them up. It will make them juicier and softer.
Toasting pecans really takes them to the next level, so don’t skip that step. However, be careful not to burn these expensive nuts. Toast pecans on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet for about 5 or 10 minutes in the preheated oven at 350 F until they get darker in color. Note: pecans burn really fast, so make sure to check the nuts after 5 minutes and frequently afterward.
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