I adore Summer produce. I get great satisfaction from going out to my garden in the afternoon to collect produce to be used for dinner. At this time of year I would usually have a huge selection of lettuces, rocket and spinach to select from. This year I have been battling with my backyard chicken over these salad greens and she was winning…. more on that another day as that has now changed.

My backyard chicken had decimated a consecutive number of plantings of salad greens so I planted some salad in pots near the house that she could not access. (Pictured below).

The Roast Pumpkin Salad recipe below used some of those lettuce leaves as well as some freshly picked Rocket leaves. The chook does not seem to like Rocket, a bonus for us as it is our preferred base salad ingredient.

This Roast Pumpkin Salad recipe was made from ingredients collected from my garden, minus the pumpkin.

Our pumpkins will be ready to pick in the coming months. I am eagerly anticipate their harvest as this is our first year of growing pumpkins. Sage is blooming in my herb patch with the alternating days of heat and rain and I think that sage and pumpkin are a match-made in-Heaven don’t you?

• Serves: 2 adults main meal (serve with grilled chicken if desired)
• Preparation time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: To bake the vegetables – 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/4 small pumpkin – cut into small cubes baked for 25 minutes
• 1/2 capsicum – sliced and baked for 20 minutes
• 200 grams of tomatoes baked for 20 minutes
• fresh salad leaves of choice
• generous handful of fresh sage leaves
• 50 – 80 grams of feta cheese cubed

Dressing:

• 1 tablespoon of good quality olive oil
• 2 teaspoons of seeded mustard
• 12 fresh sage leaves – chopped or torn
• 2 grinds pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice (about 1/2 a lemon)

Steps:

1. Bake the pumpkin, capsium and tomatoes and then remove them from the oven to cool
2. Mix the dressing ingredients together with a fork to combine
3. Arrange the salad ingredients, including the baked vegetables on a serving plate, drizzle the dressing over the salad just prior to serving.

The salad components can be prepared in advance. Add the dressing when ready to serve.

Easy, done. Serve. Enjoy.

Do you have a vegetable and herb flavour combination that you love?  Share what it is via the comments below.