Roasted Pumpkin Pomegranate Salad with Rocket and Labneh
Summery delicious nutritious Roasted Pumpkin Pomegranate Salad with Labneh, Buckwheat Rocket. Easy to put together, it is a pleasing medley of colours and flavours.
Servings: 2 people
Ingredients
Labneh / Hung Curd/ Strained Yogurt
- 200 gm yogurt
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- ⅛ teaspoon salt the original recipe calls for Sea salt
Roasted Pumpkin
- 500 gms pumpkin cubed Peeled, cubed to ½ inch sized pieces
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon pepper freshly ground
- ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
Honey Buckwheat
- 50 gms Buckwheat
- 1 tablespoon honey
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper freshly ground
Basil Pistou
- 15 gms Fresh Basil leaves or 1 cup chopped fresh basil
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 pinch salt or to taste
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper freshly ground
Other ingredients
- 25 gms arugula leaves rocket - 1 cup packed
- 1 number pomegranate arils from 1 pomegranate
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- to taste salt
Instructions
How to make Labneh
- Tie the curd / yogurt in a muslin/ thin cloth, squeeze gently and allow to drain for a minimum of 4 hours or even overnight till most of the whey drips away.
- Beat the labneh with olive oil, salt and pepper. Shaheen says, keep it fluid.
Cover and set aside till required in a cool place.
How to make Toasted Honey Buckwheat
- Preheat the oven to 160 deg C /320 deg F. Mix the buckwheat with honey, salt and pepper, so that the honey coats the buckwheat all over.
- Spread the buckwheat on a baking sheet lined with parchment and toast in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer the buckwheat to a bowl so that it stops toasting, set aside till required. Shaheen says, if the buckwheat is not removed immediately from the hot tray and allowed to cool, it will harden.
How to Roast Pumpkin
- After removing the Buckwheat from the oven, increase oven temperature to 220 deg C (about 430 F) and let it reach that temperature before you proceed. Mix the pumpkin cubes with salt, pepper and olive oil, toss till the pumpkin is layered with the mixture.
- Spread out the pumpkin cubes on a baking dish lined with parchment, checking to see that the pieces are not too close or touching each other, so that they can roast well. Shaheen advises that if the pumpkin pieces are crowded together, they will steam instead of roast. Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes.
Remove and set aside till required.
Basil Pistou
- Link to my Recipe for homemade Basil oil is given in the introduction above and in the notes below. To make the Basil Pistou instead: Place the chopped basil leaves and garlic pod in the processor and run it with a teaspoon of the olive oil.
- When its smoothly blended, whisk in the rest of the olive oil, the lemon zest and the seasonings. Set aside till required.
Roasted Pumpkin Labneh Buckwheat Salad with Pomegranate and Rocket
- Extract the pomegranate arils from the fruit.
Wash and spin dry or pat the arugula/ rocket leaves dry.
Squeeze the juice from the lemon - Gently toss together the roasted pumpkin, the arugula leaves and the pomegranate arils.
- For each serving, spread each plate with labneh. Heap a large helping of the pumpkin, arugula, pomegranate mixture onto the labneh. Sprinkle the honey buckwheat all around. Drizzle 2 teaspoons of Basil oil and a dash of lemon juice
- Serve immediately.
