Raw Butternut Squash Salad ♥

Today's salad recipe: It's one thing to eat raw tomatoes and cucumbers and zucchini. But winter squash? When grated small, winter squash is surprisingly tender. Pair it with a little fresh ginger and add some dried fruit for sweetness. This is a salad that will delight the eyes and the tastebuds! A small serving is "low carb" and even a larger serving adds up to only 1 Weight Watchers point (old points) or 2 Weight Watchers points (PointsPlus).

As sweet as vegetables can turn once they're cooked, especially when they're roasted slowly in a hot oven, every once in awhile, "raw" vegetables can really hit the spot.

I first made this salad last fall -- on the very day the recipe was published in the New York Times. I made no notes, I wrote no post, mostly because mid-November didn't strike me as the "right time" for a raw winter squash salad. But I did take a pretty picture and it kept popping up when perusing the photo files for the scores of "work in process" recipes, many which are too "meh" or too "something" to meet my high standards for both A Veggie Venture and Kitchen Parade.

But the first small winter squash are showing up both at the farmers market and the grocery store. They're especially perfect for this raw salad -- because the flesh is slightly more tender, the proportion of flesh:seeds&gunk is high. And just like the Butternut Squash Soup with Mango & Toasted Coconut, it strikes me as a great "transitional" salad, one that spans the season, when the weather is still warm and

And -- Canadians readers, are you there? This would be a great side salad for Canadian Thanksgiving coming up so quickly now, especially with dried cranberries instead of dried currants.

EAT VEGETABLES IN SEASON: THIS WEEK, YEARS PAST
Roasted Eggplant & Tomato Pizza Quick Tomato Sauce Tomato & Rice Salad Zucchini Pumpkin Bread Swiss Chard Gratin Broccoli Parmesan Casserole Four Seasons of My Favorite Herb Green Beans with Mayo-Soy Sauce Farmgirl's Swiss Chard Tuna Salad Grilled Cheese BLT Homemade Onion Dip Julia Child's Lentil Salad Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon Vinaigrette

KITCHEN PARADE, LAST WEEK Creamy Wild Rice Soup

RECIPE for RAW BUTTERNUT SQUASH SALAD

Hands-on time: 20 minutes
Time to table: 20 minutes
Makes 3 cups

1 small butternut squash (about 1-1/2 pounds to yield 1 pound of edible squash)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons good light-colored vinegar (for example, champagne, white wine, sherry, rice)
1 tablespoon fresh ginger (I use jars of ginger)
1/4 cup currants or dried cranberries (see TIPS)
Salt & pepper to taste

Trim and slice off the skin of the "neck" of a butternut squash -- twice, it's yielded exactly one-pound of sweet winter squash flesh. (How? How to Cut, Peel & Cube a Butternut Squash and Keep All Ten Fingers.) Grate the squash on the large holes of a hand grater (see TIPS). Stir in the remaining ingredients.

MAKE AHEAD Combine all the ingredients, cover and refrigerate. Much to my surprise, the texture doesn't really change (at least over 24 hours) and the squash doesn't discolor either.

ALANNA's TIPS & KITCHEN NOTES
I thought a mandoline would make "prettier" pieces of squash. But a butternut squash is too tough for a mandoline, it just won't slide through. In contrast, a three-sided grated, with a little elbow grease, worked just great.
I have the idea that most people will find a full half cup of this salad to be "a lot". So volume-wise, three cups could go a long ways, a spoonful at a time, almost more like a salsa or relish.
I always choose currants over raisins -- they are less sweet. And because they are smaller, a smaller quantity will "go further" when distributed in a salad or cookies or whatever. Dried cranberries are nearly always large -- so I'd recommend chopping them a little to distribute better.
For texture contrast, I might top with a few toasted almonds or toasted pecans.

TODAY'S VEGETABLE RECIPE INSPIRATION Adapted from Raw Butternut Squash Salad With Raisins and Ginger from the New York Times.

NUTRITION ESTIMATES
Per 1/4 Cup: 36 Calories; 1g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 0mg Cholesterol; 1mg Sodium; 7g Carb; 1g Fiber; 3g Sugar; 1g Protein; Weight Watchers Old Points .5, PointsPlus 1

Per 1/2 Cup: 72 Calories; 2g Tot Fat; 0g Sat Fat; 0mg Cholesterol; 3mg Sodium; 14g Carb; 2g Fiber; 6g Sugar; 1g Protein; Weight Watchers Old Points 1, PointsPlus 2

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MORE "UNUSUALLY RAW" RECIPES
~ Raw Beet, Carrot & Kohlrabi Salad ~
~ Raw Beet Salad ~
~ Gorgeous Raw Asparagus Salad ~
~ Celeriac Slaw ~
~ more "unusually raw" recipes ~
from A Veggie Venture

MORE FAVORITE WINTER SQUASH RECIPES
~ My Favorite Winter Squash Recipes ~

~ Sweet Potato & Butternut Squash Tagine ~
~ Savory Bread Pudding with Butternut Squash, Chard & Cheddar ~
~ Steamed Butternut Squash ~
~ Roasted Butternut Squash with Maple Glaze ~
~ more winter squash recipes ~
from A Veggie Venture

~ Roasted Butternut Squash & Apple ~
~ Chicken & Wild Rice Soup ~
~ Acorn Squash with Quinoa & Cherries ~
~ more winter squash ~
from Kitchen Parade, my food column

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A Veggie Venture is home of winter-squash lover and 'veggie evangelist' Alanna Kellogg and the
famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables.
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