Roasted Butternut Squash and Blackberry Harvest Salad (2024)

This gorgeous Roasted Butternut Squash and Blackberry Harvest Salad is a Fit Foodie Finds reader favorite that’s fall-inspired and so flavorful.

It’s made with roasted butternut squash, candied nuts, blackberries, and massaged kale with a homemade dressing!

Perfect Harvest Salad

Talk about the most perfect harvest salad you’ve ever seen. It’s sweet and savory at the same time and is made with the most delicious roasted butternut squash you’ve ever had.

I love me a good harvest salad because they’re packed with seasonal ingredients, are filling, and packed with so much good nutrition.

How to Massage Kale

Every great salad starts with a yummy green base. We love using kale in the fall/winter because it’s hearty and abundant at most grocery stores.

If you’re planning to use kale off the stalk (like this recipe), ALWAYS, and I mean always, massage the kale first. If you don’t, it’ll be hard to chew and might even give you a stomach ache.

We have an entire post on how to massage kale if you want to check that out, but I’ll give you a quick rundown.

1. Wash kale under warm water and pat dry.
2. Debone kale by ripping off the leafs. Discard the bone.
3. Chop kale into large, bite-sized pieces and place it into a large bowl.
4. Drizzle on olive oil and sprinkle on some salt.
5. Massage the kale between your fingers. Do this for 3-5 minutes until the kale turns bright green and feels “wilted.”

How to Roast Butternut Squash

Next up is the star ingredient of this harvest salad –> roasted butternut squash! Good news for you is that you can find pre-cubed butternuts squash these days to make this part of the salad super simple.

Butternut squash is one of my favorite vegetables (it’s actually a fruit!) because it’s hearty, slightly sweet, and so versatile. You can make butternut squash soup, butternut squash lasagna, you name it!

What You Need

Roasting butternut squash is simple and only requires a few ingredients. You’ll need cubed butternut squash, olive oil, salt, and pepper. That’s it!

How to Make It

1. Place butternut squash on a baking sheet.
2. Drizzle on olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss everything together
3. Roast at 400ºF for 20-25 minutes.

Favorite Balsamic Dressing

While you can use any store-bought balsamic dressing in this salad, we highly suggest whipping up your own homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

Here’s what you need:

• Dijon mustard
• Maple syrup
• Balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil
• Salt

Place all of the ingredients into a jar and mix them together. Voila, you have an easy balsamic vinaigrette!

Harvest Salad Toppings

A salad isn’t a salad without the toppings. We’re going big because want to make sure this salad fills you up and fuels you for your day.

Roasted Butternut Squash: we’ve already oo-ed and aa-ed over roasted butternut squash multiple times in this post. We know you’ll love it.

Candied Pecans & Pumpkin Seeds: go the extra mile and candy your nuts and seeds with a little maple syrup and salt. Trust us.

Blackberries: blackberries add a pop of freshness to this salad. You can really use any berry you wish.

Goat Cheese: goat cheese is a mild cheese and goes so well with the flavors in this harvest salad recipe.

Balsamic Dressing: we always recommend making your own dressing, but you can use store-bought, too!

Dried Cranberries: dried cranberries are like the cherry on top. They’re sweet and easy to find at any grocery store.

This post is sponsored by Driscoll’s. I was compensated and all opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting Fit Foodie Finds and making this website possible!