Roasted Pumpkin and Spinach Salad with Spiced Tempeh and Cottage Cheese

How about whipping up a quick salad for a hot summer afternoon lunch? Sounds good!! It works all the better for me if the salad has spicy fried tempeh as crunch factor. I love tempeh, not only in salads but in absolutely any form. In Singapore, Malays use Tempeh to make a wonderful dish called Sambal Goreng, which is spicy and flavorful with tempeh cooked along with long beans and sambal. I ate it quite frequently while I was pregnant, to an extent that I got Gestational Diabetes! 😀 Immediately my doctor asked me to stop eating sambal goreng as the dish has some sugar content, but it is absolutely delicious. 😉

Tempeh if eaten just by itself is a power food. Prepared from soybeans, it has laudable nutritional characteristics and high content of proteins, dietary fibers and vitamins. I prefer to shallow fry it with slight paprika and salt. Tastes heavenly!

I always keep finding excuses to consume salads on a regular basis. Even when I go out, I constantly look out for salad bars. Salads are not only a healthy option for food, they are also filling and keep you away from unnecessary cravings.

My enthusiasm after I had a pumpkin and spinach salad at a local salad bar was inevitable. I loved the flavor of roasted pumpkins, which certainly has driven me to reproduce the dish at home. The only difference is that I substituted the feta with crumbled cottage cheese (paneer) which gave a wow factor to this salad! If you want to enjoy a hearty salad this is it! It’s healthy, vibrant, colorful and loaded with nutrition. Indulge in clean eating for a better life!!

Ingredients:

Pumpkin: 1/2

Garlic – 3 whole cloves

Spinach – a small bunch of baby spinach leaves (washed thoroughly)

Avocado – 1 (peeled and cut into slices)

Tempeh – cut into bite-size peices

Paneer  / cottage cheese – few cubes

Paprika – 1 tsp

Olive oil – 1 tbsp

Honey – 1 tsp

Lime juice – 2 tsp

Vinegar – 1/2 tsp

Salt – as per taste

Method:

1. Cut the pumpkin into small cubes (with skin on). Lightly apply olive oil salt and pepper. Place the pumpkin on a tray lined with baking sheet. Add few cloves of peeled garlic. Roast in the oven at 180-200 degree Celsius for 40 mins.

2. Marinate the tempeh and paneer with some paprika and salt. Shallow fry with very little oil in a pan.

3. I used organic baby spinach leaves. Wash thoroughly.

4. Prepare the dressing. In a bowl, take olive oil, honey, vinegar, lime juice and salt. Whisk well until everything is incorporated and the dressing turns kind of creamy.

5. In a large mixing bowl, toss the spinach and pumpkin with the salad dressing.

6. Crumble the paneer and sprinkle on top along with the tempeh. Serve it with some sliced avocados on the side.

P.S: You can also add some toasted walnuts on top. 

Enjoy this hearty and healthy salad for a refreshing lunch! 🙂