A warm, hearty winter salad with spicy caramelised pumpkin, charred green beans, abundant herbs and a zesty chilli dressing, served with seared steak. Jump to Recipe
I really want to be able to write something interesting here, like some kind of adventuring or new food discovery or meaningful thoughts for the day. But I’m actually unusually stuck. The last few weeks have been consumed with wading thigh-deep through assignments, scrambling to keep on top of course notes and then being intermittently distracted and perfecting the art of mindless procrastination. I don’t think you particularly want to hear about my chronic illness case report on peripheral vascular disease, the ins and outs of childhood rashes or how to give painless flu vaccines (I’ve done about 200 in the past few weeks, being the start of flu season here). Nothing to write home about, essentially.
There have been a few brighter patches – feeding 6 for a cosy and boisterous Sunday evening slow- cooked beef cheek ragu with homemade ciabatta, finished off with a bubbling, caramelised skillet of gooey dark chocolate and pear crumble. Heading out to brunch for a winter bowl of black sesame and spiced fig porridge and talking all things London with Bec & Camilla. Finding the cutest new cafe just down the road from my house, filled with three tiny tables and a takeaway window cabinet full of home baking, double chocolate brownies and maple walnut banana bread, serving top notch Coffee Supreme brew. AND they have a black tahini avocado toast on their menu – win. That’ll be getting me through exam season. In the meantime, I’m experimenting with drizzling tahini on my cinnamon banana porridge, whizzing up pesto with the dregs of kale and parsley in the fridge, and discovering how much I love roast butternut squash (thanks, Ottolenghi).
Said roast butternut squash is a vital component of today’s Thai beef salad with caramelised pumpkin & green beans. It’s one of those fast weeknight meals that is on the table in half an hour (maybe 40 minutes), and is so hearty, warm and filling you hardly realise you’re eating salad in the middle of winter. Just maybe wear gloves when you toss the pumpkin in the spice marinade..I learnt the hard way when my bright yellow turmeric stained nails made me look like I had some strange disease. That important balance of zesty lime with fish sauce and sugar is taken to the next level with finely grated fresh ginger and an abundance of fresh herbs. Have I convinced you yet?
A warm, hearty winter salad with spicy caramelised pumpkin, charred green beans, abundant herbs and a zesty chilli dressing, served with seared steak. Adapted from Nadia Lim.
- 800 g butternut squash , skin on
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 3 cloves garlic , crushed
- 1 teaspoon red chili flakes
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- zest and juice of 1 lime
- 1 red chilli , finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
- 1 clove garlic , finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- a few large handfuls of green beans (300-400g)
- 1 cup chopped coriander
- 1/2 cup chopped mint
- a few large handfuls baby spinach
- 1/3 cup peanuts , toasted and chopped
- 300-400 g porterhouse steak (I usually allow ~150g per person)
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Preheat the oven to 200°C fan-bake. Chop the butternut into chunks (leave the skin on) and spread out on a baking paper lined oven tray. In a small ramekin, mix together the ground coriander, turmeric, garlic, chili flakes, brown sugar and olive oil. Pour over the squash and toss to coat (wear gloves here if you don’t want to stain your nails yellow!). Bake for 20-30 minutes or until tender and just caramelised on the edges.
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To make the dressing, combine all ingredients, stir to combine and set aside.
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Heat a frying pan over high heat with a splash of olive oil. Add the beans and sautee until slightly charred and just tender, but retaining a bit of crunch. Set aside.
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Season the steak with liberal salt and pepper. Over a high heat, sear on each side until cooked to your liking (with the fairly thin 200g porterhouse steak in the photo, I did 2 minutes on each side). Rest for 5-10 minutes wrapped in aluminum foil before slicing.
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In a large bowl, combine the beans, coriander, mint, spinach, peanuts and roast butternut. Add the dressing and toss to combine. Serve with sliced steak.
ooo are you planning a trip to london? It sounds like you could use a break. 200 flu jabs :0 crazy. This salad looks tasty. Really tasty. One of my fav foods at the moment is roasted pumpkins & butternut squahses.
what, you mean med school/being a doctor isn’t like grey’s?? (i seriously used to think i wanted to be a doctor because of that show sigh). anyways, this salad sounds delicious. i was talking to someone about vegetarianism the other day, and mentioned that i’d probably miss fish sauce most of all. it makes everything so much more flavorful!!
hahahah I wish!! I’ve actually never watched grey’s, and now i can’t start because there is just way too many seasons to even think about it. and yeah fish sauce would be such a pain – especially because it would be used so much eating out. I think I’d have to be a pescatarian so I could maintain my salmon and fish sauce loves!
Yummmm this looks amazing! I love throwing things like this together – the markets here are awesome at the moment with heaps of produce. Even though it’s spring we are totally having roast butternut for dinner tonight haha – have you ever had it on a pizza? Sometimes we do roast butternut pizza with a goat cheese and brown butter sage.. so good! I lived with 3 boys in my third year of uni and come autumn we literally used to half live on it.
x
Yessss I know I remember seeing one of those pizzas in your story, and I think I’m going to have to make one next week now that I can splurge on Merediths all the time…that would be so amazing with pesto too. xx
There is so much deliciousness in this bowl I almost can’t even deal!! That caramelized squash, I mean . . . swoooon!!
Thanks so much Todd!
You do sound like you need a MAJOR break!! And deserve one! Black tahini avocado toast sounds AMAZING!!! But this pumpkin bowl, off the hook 🙂
So ready for the holidays in a few weeks!! Thanks Lindsay! <3
that caramelized pumpkin tho. xo
<3 <3
pretty!!! and vibrant! i don’t even eat meat but damn that looks good X
Thanks Thalia! I’ve also eaten it with poached eggs on top instead of the meat, which is awesome too! xx
now you have me craving caramelized pumpkin! it is out of season for us now, but I have something to look forward to in a few more months!
You had me at caramelized pumpkin. omg yes…. – CK
I love the flavors happening in this salad – the creamy pumpkin with those crunchy green beans! It all sounds so delicious x
Looks delicious. Thank you for the recipe. A must try
Hello.
Happy Easter.
Do you squash with skin still on?
Hi Lynda! With butternut squash, yes I leave the skin on as it gets tender as it cooks, and saves a lot of time! With other types of squash and pumpkin I’d cut it off, as it is a lot tougher. Hope that helps!