Fall Breakfast Salad

A festive fall breakfast salad with cinnamon roasted butternut squash, apple slices, avocado, red onion, walnuts, hemp seeds and an egg!

Leafy green vegetables are some of the healthiest foods on Earth and getting a large dose at breakfast is an awesome way to start the day. I know some folks are going to think having salad is a weird concept but it’s really not — especially if you’re on a mission to eat more whole foods and/or less grains at breakfast.

I make egg scrambles with sautéed leafy greens like spinach, swiss chard and kale all the time, but it wasn’t until recently I started experimenting eating a large bowl of raw greens with toppings (a.k.a salad) for breakfast.

The idea for the salad I’m sharing today came about after making this creamy avocado balsamic dressing. It was 8:00AM and I was shooting the photos of the dressing while sipping coffee, before breakfast. I drizzled the dressing over a quick fall salad with roasted butternut squash and red onion, freshly diced apples, avocado slices, toasted walnuts and hemp seeds.

It looked waayyy to good not to taste.

Actually I’ll be honest… I’m the worst at shooting recipes because I always want to taste the food while I’m snapping photos and this morning was no different. I had no intention of eating the salad for breakfast (I was actually planning to save it for lunch) but I tried a bite and couldn’t stop eating. Then I decided it would be fabulous with an egg on top. So I cooked up an egg, sunny side up, and in a matter of 10 minutes I had an epic breakfast salad before me. The warm egg softened the greens a bit and the yolk add a bit of “dressing” — it was delightful and totally instagram-worthy.

I took photos, devoured the salad and officially determined that breakfast salads need to be a thing.

You can mark this delicious fall salad down as the first EBF breakfast salad, but if y’all like the idea I will certainly post more. And you can bet your bottom dollar that if I ever open my dream salad shop there will be at least one breakfast salad on the menu.

Of course, this salad isn’t strictly for breakfast. Feel free to serve it for lunch or dinner (or any time you please).

Fall Harvest Breakfast Salad

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Serves 1     adjust servings

Ingredients

• 3 cups butternut squash chunks
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 1 Tablespoon coconut oil
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• sprinkle of sea salt
• spring mix or baby spinach
• Granny Smith apple, thinly sliced
• avocado, chopped
• red onion, sliced
• toasted walnuts
• hemp seeds
• 1 egg, cooked any way you like
• avocado balsamic dressing

Instructions

1. Combine butternut squash, red onion, coconut oil, cinnamon and sea salt together on a baking sheet and roast in a 450° oven for about 30 minutes or until squash is cooked through. Remove and let cool.
2. Fill a salad bowl with spring mix and add toppings: roasted squash, apple slices, avocado, red onion, walnuts and hemp seeds.
3. Place cooked egg on top of the salad. Drizzle dressing over the salad and enjoy!

by Brittany Mullins

Recipe Notes

You'll likely have leftover salad toppings (roasted butternut squash, apple slices, avocado, etc.). Simply save them to make another salad or use in another application.

What do you think? Are you open to the idea of eating a salad for breakfast?