Although I love planning and cooking the whole Thanksgiving meal, a few years ago I decided I was just plain bored with the same old same old.  The problem was that no one else was.  My family and regular Thanksgiving guests wanted no deviation from tradition.  I hinted at the notion that maybe, perhaps I would replace the standard stuffing with a fabulous grain-based recipe I had been testing.  A rebellion!!!  Oh, come on people.  Like you need more bread?  Fine, the stuffing stays.  But that didn’t prevent me from trying to show everyone how overly starchy Thanksgiving is.  So I asked, “Can we do away with the mashed potatoes or make them more interesting with some roasted garlic or cauliflower puree?”  I’m sure you can guess how that went.

Someone asked me the other day what is my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal.  I’ll give you three seconds to guess.  Okay, time’s up.  The vegetables!  Too obvious, I know.  Actually, it’s really the salad that is the highlight of the meal for me because I can change it up every year and it’s the only way I get to have any fun at all.  The beautiful colors of the vegetables do a lot to balance out all that beige, not to mention balance out all the carbs.  I also love eating something raw with all that cooked food.  But from a logistical perspective, salads can be made without the use of a stove or oven, which is a saving grace on Thanksgiving.  And, as if it couldn’t get any better, salads, for the most part, can be prepped in advance.

This butternut squash salad is something I made for Thanksgiving a few years ago and I still make it often for entertaining or for potlucks during the fall.  It’s beautiful, healthful, delicious and showcases the season’s great produce.  I have a theory that fruits and vegetables that grow during the same season usually complement each other very well.

On that note, there aren’t too many fall salads that wouldn’t be more fabulous with the addition of a handful of pomegranate seeds.  In fact, I think every Thanksgiving salad I’ve made in the last 8 years has had pomegranate seeds scattered throughout.  My kids and I are obsessed with them.  It was a happy day in our house the day I came home from the farmer’s market with the first pomegranates of the season.  I’ve even taught my kids how to seed them — Mr. Picky, who is a Virgo, is rather meticulous about getting every last seed out.  We open the pomegranates under water and gently push the seeds away from the peel.  It’s actually quite therapeutic, but more importantly, it keeps me from making a trip to the dry cleaner.  Also, people tell me that the already seeded pomegranates always seem a bit soggy.  They’re certainly much more expensive and why would you pay your grocery store a premium when you’ve got kids to do the job?