With the seasons changing and a crisper feel to the air, thoughts turn to Halloween and pumpkins. I was looking for a great pumpkin caesar salad recipe and could only find this Caesar Salad with Pumpkin Croutons and Spiced Pumpkin Seeds from The Local Palate, so I that’s what I chose! The original is made with kale, but I chose to make it with romaine lettuce.
Rating 7/10
Caesar Salad with Pumpkin Croutons and Spiced Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients
Garlic, Lemon Juice, Anchovies, Worcestershire Sauce, Egg Yolk, Olive Oil, Parmesan Cheese, Pumpkin, Cayenne Pepper, Melted Butter, Romaine Lettuce. 7/10.
Caesar Salad with Pumpkin Croutons and Spiced Pumpkin Seeds
Level of difficulty
Making an olive oil based caesar salad dressing can be tricky, if you haven’t made one before, but that’s probably the most difficult part of this recipe. 7/10
Caesar Salad with Pumpkin Croutons and Spiced Pumpkin Seeds
Time taken to prepare
The pumpkin flesh and seeds need to be cooked separately, which takes a little while and both have to be prepared in advance. The dressing takes some time, but can be made while the pumpkin and seeds are cooking. This is definitely not a throw it together at the last minute dish. 6/10
Caesar Salad with Pumpkin Croutons and Spiced Pumpkin Seeds
The food
The basic ingredients are fairly standard, but the pumpkin flesh and seeds add a lovely seasonal twist to a basic caesar salad recipe. The smell of the pumpkin seeds cooking was heavenly and I my mouth was watering before I had managed to finish preparing the recipe. I used romaine lettuce rather than kale, so I’m not sure how much difference that would have made to the flavour of the finished salad. The flavours were nicely rounded and the spicy pumpkin seeds tasted just as good as they smelled. The pumpkin could probably have take a little more seasoning, but it all worked well together. 8/10
Caesar Salad with Pumpkin Croutons and Spiced Pumpkin Seeds
Overall
For a slightly different kind of caesar salad, this worked really well and is definitely worth a try when pumpkins are in season. I think that there is more that could be done with the pumpkin itself and trying this recipe has inspired me to experiment with cooking pumpkins. 7/10
Caesar's Girl 