The best vegan side dish
This roasted delicata with maple tahini is a creative vegan side dish for Holiday dinners. Delicata squash is layered with crispy kale, crunchy chickpeas, and pumpkin seeds. Then it's drizzled with a delicious maple tahini sauce that is laced with fresh thyme. This dish is served like a warm salad. I created this recipe in partnership with Mighty Sesame Co Tahini. They have compensated me for the recommendation. However, the opinions are all my own. The uber creamy tahini maple sauce really makes this dish special.
What is Tahini?
Tahini is a ground paste of sesame seeds. It's used in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean foods. Tahini adds a nutty flavor to any dish and has a decadent creaminess. I use tahini in my plant-based recipes because it makes foods creamy without dairy. Tahini is very healthy and has about the same nutritional stats as peanut butter. It really makes the flavors in this roasted delicata with maple tahini dish pop. You can read more about my favorite sesame tahini from Mighty Sesame Co. here.
What is delicata squash?
Delicata squash is a seasonal Fall/Winter squash. It is yellow to orange in color and has green stripes. It is a very pretty squash. You have probably just walked right past this gem because it is nestled in with all of the melee of squashes in the Fall. It is hard to tell which of them are decorations and which are for eating. This stunner of a squash is definitely edible. In fact the entire squash is edible including the skin! This squash is similar to a butternut in taste but is starchier and more hardy. Butternut breaks down and gets mushy whereas delicata keeps its integrity and even gets a little crispy on the outside.
Ingredients:
This dish has a handful of simple seasonal ingredients.
- delicata squash
- olive oil
- salt
- garlic powder
- smoked paprika
- chickpeas
- Dino Kale
- pumpkin seeds
- tahini
- mandarin oranges
- lemon
- water
- maple syrup
- fresh thyme leaves
How to make Roasted Delicata with Maple Tahini
This dish is really easy to make. Just pop the ingredients on sheet pans and roast them up. The dressing is as simple as throwing the ingredients in a blender!
- Preheat oven to 400
- On a large sheet pan lay out delicata squash in a single layer. Drizzle or spray with olive oil and season with ¼ tsp salt and ½ tsp garlic powder. Bake for 30 minutes turning once halfway.
- On another sheet pan add chickpeas, 1 tsp olive oil, 1 tbsp maple syrup, ¼ tsp salt and ½ tsp smoked paprika. Toss until well mixed then bake for 20 minutes turning once halfway.
- While they are baking make the Orange, maple tahini sauce by adding tahini, lemon, orange, water , fresh thyme, ½ tsp garlic powder, maple syrup and ¼ tsp salt and blending until smooth and creamy.
- Spread kale on another sheet pan and spray with remaining oil and season with a pinch of salt. Bake for 5-7 minutes until crisp.
- Layer the crispy kale, delicata and chickpeas in a bowl. Drizzle with half the sauce and put out the other half in a small bowl for drizzling. You will want more! Garnish with fresh thyme. Serve this warm or room temp.
Other delicious Tahini Recipes
Roasted Delicata with Maple Tahini
Ingredients
- 4 delicata squash seeded and cut in half moons
- 3 tsp olive oil divided
- 1 tsp salt divided
- 1 tsp garlic powder divided
- 1 tsp smoked paprika divided
- 1 can chickpeas drained
- 1 Bunch Dino Kale chopped bite sized pieces
- 3 tbsp pumpkin seeds
- ½ cup tahini
- 3 mandarin oranges juiced
- 1 lemon juiced
- ¾ cup water
- 1 tbsp plus 1 tsp maple syrup divided
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400
- On a large sheet pan lay out delicata squash in a single layer. Drizzle or spray with olive oil and season with ¼ tsp salt and ½ tsp garlic powder. Bake for 30 minutes turning once halfway.
- On another sheet pan add chickpeas, 1 tsp olive oil, 1 tbsp maple syrup, ¼ tsp salt and ½ tsp smoked paprika. Toss until well mixed then bake for 20 minutes turning once halfway.
- While they are baking make the Orange, maple tahini sauce by adding tahini, lemon, orange, water , fresh thyme, ½ tsp garlic powder, maple syrup and ¼ tsp salt and blending until smooth and creamy.
- Spread kale on another sheet pan and spray with remaining oil and season with a pinch of salt. Bake for 5-7 minutes until crisp.
- Layer the crispy kale, delicata and chickpeas in a bowl. Drizzle with half the sauce and put out the other half in a small bowl for drizzling. You will want more! Garnish with fresh thyme. Serve this warm or room temp.
Robin
I liked the flavors in this one. I thought 3/4 cup of water was too much for the sauce and made it a little too thin. Maybe a typo?
Sara Tercero
Unfortunately tahini brands vary wildly in consistency. I will add a note to the recipe. Thanks for the feedback!
Jillian
My family and I devoured this tasty number and will be adding it to our regular repertoire! (No delicata squash here in my home town in Australia so I subbed in Kent pumpkin and it was sweet and nutty and delicious) Thank you for your knowledge and inspiration 🙂
Sara Tercero
Thats so wonderful, happy you liked it! Thanks for the 5 stars and the feedback!
Abigail
I love the ingredients for this salad, but the dressing was very disappointing. 3/4 was definitely too much water, it resulted in a thin flavorless dressing. I’m hoping to make it again with less water, and probably just normal oranges. The rest of the recipe & salad was great though. Although I did roast everything (except for the kale) a bit longer. Looking forward to trying other salad recipes!
Sara Tercero
I am sorry to hear this! Because tahini brands differ greatly in thickness there can be a variety in texture. Sorry about that. Next time add the water slowly rather than all at once.
Jessica
Is there a good way to store this for leftovers?
Angie
Thank you Sara for this unique recipe! I'm only on day 5 on "eating plant based" so please take my humble opinion accordingly. This is a delicious recipe and the components are each wonderful. The dressing especially is just FIRE (and I did reduce the water as well). But....I thought it is very labor intensive and time consuming and made a fair mess in the kitchen lol. I need to find ways to streamline the process!
Sara Tercero
Happy you liked it and sorry you thought it was too hard and messy!For me this is an easy one but I forget not everyone has the equipment or is a Chef to make these so easy!
Sara Tercero
I would receive the dressing for serving because it won't be as good dressed the next day. Just make sure all is cool and store covered in the refrigerator.
JD
Hi, could you tell me how much mandarin orange juice is in 3 mandarins, in cups or ml please?
Sara Tercero
I will have to estimate but probably half a cup.
LG
I have to admit I was skeptical, but the flavors all together are amazing. The chickpeas really are a tiny lil jewel in this recipe, and the dressing is better than I could have imagined. Thank you for such innovative recipes that are loaded with good, whole foods!
Sara Tercero
This is a wonderful review thanks so much. I am so-leased you like my recipes and appreciate the feedback.
Kristin Reindel
I only had one delicata squash on hand, which made the serving size much smaller. It seemed at a glance that the squash and kale ratio were equal, but I can now see that after the kale shrinking while baking that the squash was or should have been the star in this recipe. I’ll have to roast up more veggies to spread out the rest of the dish.
I did use minimal water. -probably just a splash.
The flavors are really nice and now that I’ve made this once I see how I can stretch this out with other ingredients. The left over dressing seems like it’ll be great on other roasted vegetables.
Sara Tercero
Glad you liked it even if it was short on volume. Things that would be great in. this recipe as substitute for Delicata are sweet potatoes, butternut squash and even cauliflower!
Jamie F
I made this for a healthy lunch and my husband and I both loved it! Sadly I was unable to find delicata squash so I used sweet potato instead. I added the water to the dressing a little at a time until the dressing was the consistency I wanted. Will definitely make again.
Sara Tercero
Sweet potato is a delicious substitute! So happy you loved it.