Hot Winter Salad with Blue Cheese

One of the pleasures of the upcoming (and for some, already here) cold weather are Winter salads.

Usually with root vegetables, warming spices and with top notes of sweetness either through roasted onions or Moroccan style dried fruits.

This one with blue cheese is a simple one pot supper or glorious starter for two people, which can be dressed up with additional roasted lovelies depending upon your mood or your need for warmth.

Herb/spice mix

• One clove of garlic (or smoked garlic if you have it)
• One teaspoon of sweet paprika (or smoked paprika if you are not using smoked garlic)
• A half level teaspoon of sea salt
• One teaspoon of dried thyme (or a tablespoon of chopped fresh)
• One teaspoon of dried parsley (or a tablespoon of chopped fresh)

Mix/grind these ingredients together and if needing a little more heat add a stick of grated fresh ginger and exchange the sweet paprika with hot.

Vegetables

• 200 grams Pumpkin - diced
• 150 grams of Leeks - diced (I've used baby leeks for this so six or seven cut into four is sufficient, otherwise one medium leek should be sufficient)
• Two medium tomatoes, cored and cut into wedges
• Olive oil

Additional ingredients

• Large pieces of diced carrot and halved small onions are also a great addition to the above vegetable mix and provides a little more sweetness to the mix.  Add sultanas or chopped dates to bring a little more tagine style flavour to this dish.
• A handful of rocket leaves
• 75 grams of soft blue cheese cut into cubes
• One tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
• One tablespoon of flaked almonds

Preheat oven to 200c and in a oven dish add the vegetables and oil and coat thoroughly.  Add the herb/spice mix and again turn and combined thoroughly before placing in the oven for 30-40 minutes, turning the vegetables two or three times during the course of the cooking period.

Taking the roasted vegetables out of the oven and whilst still hot, toss in the rocket leaves and blue cheese until evenly distributed.  Add the vinegar and toss again.  To serve, sprinkle with flaked almonds.