Low-Carb Winter Salad with Cranberries and Pumpkin

This is the ultimate low-carb winter salad for your holiday table! It has the perfect balance of flavours. There's sweetness from roasted pumpkin, balsamic vinegar and dried cranberries, paired with creamy and salty goat's cheese and finally crunchy pecans, all nested in a bed of soft leaf lettuce.

This festive winter salad would be best served with roast turkey, chicken, pork or fish. I think it will go really well with this Butter Blanketed Roast Turkey recipe, Roast Spatchcock Chicken or Ginger Spiced Pork Roast but you could serve it with roast salmon or on its own as a light low-carb dinner.

Using Fresh Cranberries Instead of Dried Cranberries?

If you don't have homemade Sugar-Free Dried Cranberries on hand, you can use baked cranberries instead. Cranberries prepared this way won't be as chewy as properly dehydrated cranberries but they will work just fine in this low-carb recipe.

To bake cranberries, place about ¹/₂ cup (57 g/ 2 oz) of fresh halved cranberries (or frozen and defrosted) in a baking tray and drizzle with about 2 teaspoons of melted coconut oil or ghee. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of low-carb sweetener. Allulose works best but you can use any Erythritol based sweeteners, or Swerve. Bake for 20 minutes at 175 °C/ 350 °F (fan assisted), or 195 °C/ 380 °F (conventional). Done!

Step-by-step

1. To make this recipe you will need my Sugar-Free Dried Cranberries. If you don't have time to make them, you can use baked cranberries instead (see tips in the post above).

   

2. Preheat the oven to 200 °C/ 400 °F (fan assisted), or 220 °C/ 425 °F (conventional). Peel and cut the pumpkin into bite sized cubes (no peeling needed if you use Hokkaido squash).

3. Place pumpkin in a single layer on a baking tray and drizzle with ghee (or olive oil) and season with salt and pepper. Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

   

4. To make the dressing, in a small bowl mix the olive oil, mustard (Dijon or yellow) and balsamic vinegar.

5. To serve, tear the lettuce in a salad bowl and scatter the roasted pumpkin, goat's cheese (or feta), cranberries and roughly chopped pecans (or walnuts) over the top. (You can optionally dry roast the nuts on a hot pan for 1-2 minutes.)

   

6. Finish by drizzling the prepared dressing over the salad. This salad is best served fresh but can be kept in the fridge for up to a day. This recipe is enough to make 4 side servings (try with this Butter Blanketed Roast Turkey recipe), or 2 regular servings.

   

Recipe

Low-Carb Winter Salad with Cranberries and Pumpkin

★★★★★5.0 (5 ratings)

A tasty low-carb festive side salad made with roast pumpkin, sugar-free cranberries and soft goat's cheese. ...

Hands on

10m

Overall

30m

Servings

4

5.9 g

Net carbs

5.4 g

Protein

23.6 g

Fat

257

kcal

1 serving2 servings3 servings4 servings5 servings6 servings7 servings8 servings9 servings10 servings11 servings12 servings16 servings

US + metricMetricUS

PrintPinRate

Ingredients makes 4 side servings

• Salad:
• ¹/₄ cup homemade Sugar-Free Dried Cranberries (27 g/ 1 oz)
• 200 g pumpkin such as Hokkaido, cubed (7.1 oz)
• 1 tbsp melted ghee or extra virgin olive oil (15 ml)
• sea salt and pepper, to taste
• ¹/₂ cup crumbled soft goat's cheese or feta (75 g/ 2.7 oz)
• ¹/₄ cup crumbled pecans or walnuts (28 g/ 1 oz)
• 1 head soft lettuce (200 g/ 7.1 oz)
• Dressing:
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (45 ml)
• ¹/₂ tsp Dijon mustard or yellow mustard
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar

Instructions

1. To make this recipe you will need my Sugar-Free Dried Cranberries. If you don't have time to make them, you can use baked cranberries instead (see tips in the post above).

2. Preheat the oven to 200 °C/ 400 °F (fan assisted), or 220 °C/ 425 °F (conventional). Peel and cut the pumpkin into bite sized cubes (no peeling needed if you use Hokkaido squash).

3. Place pumpkin in a single layer on a baking tray and drizzle with ghee (or olive oil) and season with salt and pepper. Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

4. To make the dressing, in a small bowl mix the olive oil, mustard (Dijon or yellow) and balsamic vinegar.

5. To serve, tear the lettuce in a salad bowl and scatter the roasted pumpkin, goat's cheese (or feta), cranberries and roughly chopped pecans (or walnuts) over the top. (You can optionally dry roast the nuts on a hot pan for 1-2 minutes.)

6. Finish by drizzling the prepared dressing over the salad. This salad is best served fresh but can be kept in the fridge for up to a day. This recipe is enough to make 4 side servings (try with this Butter Blanketed Roast Turkey recipe), or 2 regular servings.

Nutrition per serving, about 140 g/ 5 oz

Carbs 9%Protein 8%Fat 83% of calories

Net carbs

5.9 g

Total carbs

8.1 g

Fiber

2.1 g

Sugars

2.9 g

Protein

5.4 g

Fat

23.6 g

Saturated fat

7.4 g

Calories

257 kcal

Sodium

147 mg · 6.41% RDA

Magnesium

25 mg · 6.3% RDA

Potassium

315 mg · 15.8% EMR

Nutrition by ingredient

Per about 140 g/ 5 oz	Net carbs	Protein	Fat	kcal
Cranberries, Sugar-Free Dried	1.6 g	0.1 g	0.7 g	14
Pumpkin, fresh	3 g	0.5 g	0.1 g	13
Ghee, clarified butter	0 g	0 g	3.8 g	34
Salt, sea salt	0 g	0 g	0 g	0
Pepper, black, spices	0 g	0 g	0 g	0
Goat cheese, fresh (soft)	0 g	3.5 g	4 g	50
Pecans, nuts	0.3 g	0.6 g	4.9 g	47
Lettuce, green leaf, raw	0.8 g	0.7 g	0.1 g	8
Olive oil, extra virgin	0 g	0 g	10.1 g	90
Dijon mustard	0 g	0 g	0 g	0
Balsamic vinegar, dark (excludes sweet, syrupy vinegar)	0.2 g	0 g	0 g	1
Total	5.9 g	5.4 g	23.6 g	257

Serving size about 140 g/ 5 oz

• Gluten free
• Egg free
• Nightshade free
• Pork free
• Avocado free
• Coconut free
• Fish free
• Shellfish free
• Beef free
• Pescatarian
• Vegetarian