A nutritious fall inspired dish packed with fresh flavor! This Butternut Apple Salad with Maple Vinaigrette and Hemp Hearts can be a sweet refreshing side dish or a light meal. Raisins, apples, maple and butternut squash make it naturally sweet and hemp seeds pack in protein and healthy fats. Paleo, vegan, gluten free and dairy free.
My sweet side has been taking over lately (in food, not personality) and it’s apparent in several of my recipes over the past month! This one is no exception – as you can see loud and clear in the title!
But I promise, the spinach and hemp seeds balance the flavors out here, sort of. It’s still a sweet salad, and bursting with many of the flavors I love in fall food.
I was excited to try out Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts after really liking hemp seed energy bites in the past and wanting to use them in something new.
Hemp Hearts are shelled hemp seeds that have a great nutty flavor and are packed with protein and healthy Omega-3 fatty acids. They are great added to just about anything and an easy way to pack a nutritional punch into any typical meal or snack!
You can all be excited to try them too, since after the recipe is an opportunity for you to win a package of your own!
A bit more about the recipe first. Roasted butternut squash is quite possibly my favorite fall/winter ingredient, EVEN more than pumpkin. Is that possible? I love how roasting it with coconut oil and sea salt gives it the most perfect sweet/savory combination of flavors that seems to go well with everything I combine it with.
Since I was on a sweet kick, the chopped apples and raisins naturally followed. As for the dressing, there’s just something about maple this time of year, isn’t there? Maple, raisins, squash, and apples – this just screams FALL to me and makes me want to get cozy with hot apple cider, sweatpants, and a good book.
Okay fine, I already have the sweatpants covered, but reading a book with a hot drink in hand would take the sweatpants up a few notches, I recon. Sweatpant heaven – this is my dream every winter and I do not kid you! I have been known to “treat” myself to a fresh new pair every November 😉 Anyone with me?!
Ah yes, recipe! Then, get ready to win a package of Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts!
Butternut Apple Salad with Maple Vinaigrette & Hemp Hearts
Ingredients
- The Salad:
- 2 cups butternut squash cubes 1/2 inch
- 1 tbsp melted coconut oil or olive oil (for roasting)
- 1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt for roasting
- 2 tbsp raisins
- 1 med-large fuji or honeycrisp apple cored and chopped
- 2 large handfuls fresh baby spinach
- 2-3 tbsp Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts
- Maple Vinaigrette:
- 2 tbsp light flavored olive oil
- 2 tsp fresh lemon juice or apple cider vinegar whichever you prefer
- 1/2 - 1 tsp pure grade A maple syrup depending on how sweet you want the dressing
Instructions
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Roast the Butternut Squash:
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Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
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Coat the butternut squash cubes in the olive oil and sea salt and spread out in a single layer on the parchment lined baking sheet. Roast in the oven 15 minutes, shake, stir, or turn, and continue to roast another 15 minutes or until soft and golden brown. Remove from oven and set aside.
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While the squash is roasting, whisk together the dressing ingredients and set aside.
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To assemble the salad - start with the spinach and top with butternut squash, apples, raisins, and Hemp Hearts. Just before serving, drizzle on desired amount of dressing (whisk again before adding) and lightly toss.
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Makes 2 small salads or 1 large serving.
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Enjoy!
Giveaway Time!
What are your favorite fall-food combos?
Are you a fan of hemp seeds? What have you tried them with?
Hi! I'm Michele. Paleo eater and recipe creator, runner, and mom of 3. Welcome to my blog, where we obsess over all of it and love every minute! (It's way fun over here, promise.) Stay a while to eat, run, and rant with me! 
Yum! Butternut & apple are some of my favorite flavors. The hemp seeds are just the icing on the cake. P.S. pictures are looking good!
Thanks! I’m working on it but have tons to learn!
love those hearts! so great in baking too! although you know me, i adore a good fall salad!
I’m a salad lover year round – roasted veggies and potatoes on a salad are so good! I’ll have to try baking with the seeds.
You had to know I would love this recipe!! I love roasted butternut squash, especially with apples.
Might be the best combo ever!
Apples and squash are such an amazing combo, and the Canadian in me loves that you added maple syrup as well 😀 I don’t make nearly enough roasted salads, and I really need to start — SO good!
The maple adds to the sweetness and I’ve been craving sweets lately 🙂 I love roasted veggies and potatoes on salad year round, but really good for fall and winter.
I think anything roasted is a fall favorite for me! Add some fall spices and I’m good to go. I should probably treat myself to a new pair of sweatpants considering the ones I LIVE in are like 5 years old.
Sweatpants are my lifeline all fall and winter and I’m pretty serious when I shop for them!
This looks like a dream. I’ve never tried Hemp Hearts, but I feel like I see them everywhere. I’m with you on Butternut Squash and I think it’s my favorite because of the texture!
That texture is so fabulous when roasted! And the sweet/salty flavor, I’m craving it again!
Hemp is on my still-to-try list, but I already love the spinach, butternut squash, and apple combo!
It adds a bit of nuttiness and crunch – so good!
I never think to add roasted veggies to a salad. I always seem to forget about that. I love hemp seeds, as I love pretty much anything that has fat in it. Fat tastes good, period. And they’re crunchy too. Yum. And I totally need sweatpants. My teenagers keep stealing mine!
I love roasted veggies and potatoes on salad – year round actually!
That salad looks really tasty! I haven’t tried hemp hearts before but think I will.
They’re nutty and a little crunchy – really good and so healthy 🙂
Wow! Can you just make this for me? I’ll cover costs and shipping and labor. Lol I wish I was kidding. This looks superbly delightful!!!
Lol, I’d be happy to!
I love butternut squash (really, any type of winter squash!) and apples so much – they’re my favorite fall foods. I’ve never tried hemp hearts but I would probably love them since I’m practically addicted to chia seeds and they seem similar.
I’m the same with winter squash – give me all of them (roasted of course!) And I definitely think you’d like hemp hearts!
I just love that nutty hemp taste! When hemp is in something, you can tell!
That really is the best way to describe it – one of a kind!
I love the idea of treating yourself to a new pair of sweatpants every November…I basically live in them for the winter months but never invest in new ones…it would probably make sense since I wear them so much:) Ive never tried hemp hearts, but this recipe looks delicious!
I know, I figure they’re the item I wear the most so new ones are okay!
So many wonderful flavors in one bowl. This looks delicious Michele.
The best flavors, thanks!