I was given a bag of Golden Girl Granola - Creative Cranberry to make this recipe.  When I received the granola we had a hard time saving enough to make this recipe.  It was so delicious.  This recipe will be entered into a challenge that is sponsored by Golden Girl Granola.

Roasted Vegetable Salad with Granola

When I was trying to think of a recipe for this challenge my first thought went to an apple crisp type of recipe.  I then found out that this challenge was for a entree so I had to really do some thinking. As the granola that I picked had cranberries and almond slices it took a lot more thought to come up with something.  I did a lot of searching for a recipe and most of the entrees that I could come up with where a granola crusted meat.  This just wasn't what I was looking or thinking would work.  

As my first thought went to apples, I thought why couldn't I make a vegetarian dish and use apples and squash with a granola topping.  This worked and I think (and also my hubby) that this dish was perfect.

Ingredients:

1/2 sweet potato (approx 1 cup cut into bite-size pieces)

2 yellow potatoes (approx 1 1/2 cup cut into bite-size pieces)

1 apple (cute in bite size pieces)

1 acorn squash peeled and cut into bite-size pieces *

1 cup red onion cut into bite size pieces

3 tbsp oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Spring Mix Greens (or any time of lettuce like spinach, arugula, romaine etc)

1/4 to 1/2 cup Golden Girl Granola - Creative Cranberry

Cilantro Dressing:

1/2 cup oil

1/2 tbsp lime juice

3 cloves garlic minced

1 tsp honey

1/2 tbsp cilantro

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Cut up sweet potato, yellow potato, apple, acorn squash and red onions into bite size pieces.

Place potatoes into one bowl and squash, apple and onions in a second bowl. 

Into each add 1 1/2 tbsp oil and salt and pepper.

Spread each bowl of ingredients in baking pan.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until tender.  

Mix both dishes together and set aside. 

While vegetables are cooking make cilantro dressing.

To make dressing, mix together oil, lime juice, garlic, honey, cilantro and salt and pepper.

To serve:

Place spring mix or lettuces onto plate.

Add roasted vegetables on top of spring mix.

Drizzle about 1/2 of the dressing over entire plate.

Sprinkle 1/4 cup of granola over entire plate.

Serve with extra granola and dressing so more can be added if desired.  

Cook's Note:  *To be able to peel and cut squash easier, I put a few slices or fork pricks into the squash and cook into microwave for 2 -3 minutes so the squash is slightly soft.  

Verdict:  This dish is perfect and delicious, sweet and savory.  The granola gives it just the crunch that you need and I added extra to my plate.  Even hubby was impressed with this meal and we ate just about the whole dish. When I served this first the vegetables where slightly warm and then we ate the leftover cold.  My husband added more dressing to his, but I thought the dressing I added to serve was just enough for me.  I did add more dressing when I ate the leftover.



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