Clean Eats: Butternut Squash Quinoa Salad with Goat Cheese and Roasted Grapes

Sharing this yummy way to eat quinoa as a precursor to today’s “Fit Fuel” blog I’ll post next! In this week’s Fit Fuel post Marissa is sharing “3 grains that pack a powerful punch” to fuel your barre workouts! And guess what, quinoa is one of them! I found this quinoa recipe on “With Salt & Wit.” It took a little while to make, but now I have a healthy side dish ready for the week! I try to make a lunch dish I can eat all week (or at least for a few days) at the beginning of the week to avoid ordering lunch out. Even when I worked in an office, it was rare I bought lunch. Want more healthy bring-to-work lunch ideas to slim down? Check out Shape Magazine’s article for a few more satisfying lunches that will help you lose weight.

Today I had this dish with chicken! Here’s what you need to make it happen…

Ingredients:

• 2 cups butternut squash, cut into 1” cubes
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups red grapes
• ½ cup goat cheese, crumbled (optional)
• 1 tsp salt, divided
• ½ tsp pepper, divided
• Handful thinly sliced basil

Prep time: 1 hour

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 415 degrees F. 
• On a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicon baking sheet, add butternut squash evenly so they are not overlapping and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper.
• Place into oven and roast for 35 – 40 minutes, or until soft and edges are brown. Toss around every 10 minutes.
• When butternut squash has 10 minutes remaining, place grapes onto a small baking sheet and sprinkle with remaining ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper. Place in oven and roast for 10 minutes, or until grapes start to burst and wilt. Remove from oven and set aside until ready to assemble salad.

• Meanwhile, cook quinoa according to package instructions, except substituting chicken broth of water. (If your quinoa recipe calls more than a 2:1 ratio of water to quinoa, please follow those proportions.) Once quinoa is done cooking, set aside.
• To assemble salad, in a large bowl, add quinoa, caramelized butternut squash, roasted grapes, goat cheese and basil. Mix well and serve at room temperature or warm.

I didn’t have chicken broth so I used water but it was still tasty! I had extra cubed squash left over so I made a modified version of our Clean Eats recipe: Roasted Butternut Squash with Kale and Almond Pecan Parmesan from Town Barre-ista Cheryl!

Cheers & Bon Appetit! Michelle