Fall Harvest Salad (Gluten free + Dairy free)

This Fall Harvest Salad is perfect for a cozy and healthy autumn meal. Whether you’re making this for a holiday side dish or as a healthy meal for your day you cant go wrong with these colorful roasted vegetables. These seasonal flavors make a perfect combo of chicken sausage, squash, brussel sprouts and a simple olive oil dressing.

WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS RECIPE

This Fall harvest salad is easy to throw together for a healthy lunch or dinner

This salad is packed with roasted veggies and fresh leafy greens

It has minimal clean up

Takes 10 minutes to make

Can be easily made vegan or vegetarian

Uses chicken sausage which is a healthy substitute instead of using pork or beef sauasge

You can use any leafy greens you have readily available

You can add any other roasted veggies you have laying around

The dressing is only 3 ingredients

This recipe is guten free, dairy free and nut free

INGREDIENTS & SUBSTITUTIONS

Arugula + Spinach

You can use any leafy greens you have. You can use lettuce, kale, sping mix, etc. You can chop them as fine as you’d like or leavy them as full leafs.

Butternut squash

Butternut squash is slightly sweet and the edges get crispy when roasted. You can use any type of squash here you prefer as a substitute including zuchinni, yellow squash, etc. If you want to save time and prep ahead of time you can cut the squash into 1″ cubes ready for roasting

Brussel sprouts

Brussel sprouts are a hearty, crispy addition to this salad. They give a slightly bitter taste to offset the swetness of the butternut squash. If you want to save time and prep ahead of time you can cut the brussel sprouts in half and remove 1/2″ of the bottom stem if it is dry or yellow.

Pepitas

Provide a good crunch and a traditional fall flavor. Pumpkin seeds and pepitas are the same thing but pepitats have the shell already removed. You can use either option for this salad.

Chicken Sausage

This can be omitted if making the salad vegetarian or vegan. Chicken sausage is a healthy protein and keeps this salad as a healthy meal option. You can use already prepared chicken sausage to cut down on time. I like the alfresco brand. They even have an apple and chicken sausage that would work very well. Slice chicken sausage into 1/2″ slices. Chicken sausage is easy to crisp in in a frying pan with some non stick spray, in the oven on parchment paper lined tray or in the air fryer with no oil!

The dressing: Olive oil + Salt + Pepper

This salad dressing is a healthy option loaded with tons of healthy fats. You can choose to add garlic to it or add some balsamic vinegar as well if thats more your flavor. The idea is to keep the dressing light and muted to let the roasted vegetables speak. You can use vegetable oil, sunflower oil or avocado oil but it will change the flavoring.

TASTE & TEXTURE

This salad is leafy with warm roasted vegetables and healthy, crispy chicken sausage protein. Its best served at room temperature right when the roasted vegetables are done cooking.

HOW TO MAKE

DIRECTIONS

STEP 1

Prepare the vegetables on a cutting board. Dice the butternut squash into 1″ cubes. Remove the stem of the brussel sprouts and cut in half. Spray both with light cooking spray, salt and pepper. Roast in the oven on 400 for approx 30-40 minutes or until crispy. You can also air fry on 390 for approx 15-20 minutes until crispy.

STEP 2

While the vegetables are cooking, use a cutting board to chop the arugula and spinach into smaller pieces if desired. Add to serving bowl.

STEP 3

Slice the chicken sausage into 1/2″ slices and roast as desired. I air fried mine on 400 for approx 10-15 minutes until the edges were browned.

STEP 4

Once the vegetables and chicken sausage are done cooking, add them to the serving bowl with the leafy greens. Top with pepitas, olive oil, salt + pepper.

EXPERT TIPS & TRICKS

If you have enough room in your air fryer you can roast the vegetables for 20 minutes, then add the chicken sausage and continue to roast the vegetables and the chicken together for another 20 minutes.

If you choose to oven roast you can roast the vegetables for 20 minutes on 400, then add the chicken sausage and continue to roast the vegetables and the chicken together for another 20 minutes.

I use light cooking spray on the vegetables but not on the chicken sausage. The fattiness of the chicken will help it not stick to the pan or air fryer without adding extra uneeded saturated fats.

You can make this your own by adding dairy/cheese to this salad. You can add crumbled goat cheese, blue cheese or gorgonzola.

You can make this your own by adding nuts to this Fall Harvest Salad. You can add pecans, almonds or walnuts. For a sweeter flavor you can add candied pecans or candied walnuts.

For extra crunch you can add diced apples or diced pears.

HOW TO SERVE & STORE

You can prepare these vegetables 1-2 days in advance and store the raw in the refrigerator in an air tight container.

You can cook these vegetables 1-2 days in advance and store in the refrigerator in an air tight container. Remove from the refrigerator 1-2 hours before making the salad to allow time to return to room temp. You can also warm the vegetables up in a pan or an air fryer for 3-5 minutes. Do not microwave or the vegetables will become very mushy.

If you have left overs they can be stored in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.