Thanksgiving Experiment: Grilled Buttenut Squash Salad with Maple-Balsamic Glaze, Wilted Spinach, Red Onions, and Gorgonzola

This Thanksgiving, I tried two new dishes, both of which worked as well as I could have hoped. The first of these was a butternut squash dish. My brother had requested squash. I was concerned because we'd already worked out the rest of the menu and it was heavy. I wanted a lighter vegetable in there.

I decided to try to make something light using butternut squash.

I started off with a maple-balsamic dressing: balsamic vinegar, olive oil, maple syrup, a couple cloves of garlic, and some mustard to emulsify it a bit.

The night before, I cut up some squash into about a dozen half-circle slices, each about 1/3 inch thick. I marinated these in the maple-balsamic. A bottle of Jack Daniel's caught my eye, and I added a splash of that into the marinade. I didn't know whether there were any alcohol-soluble flavors in there, but I figured that it wouldn't hurt.

Shortly before the meal, some chopped red onion got added to the dressing. I tossed the squash slices on the grill. Each of the slices got cut into smaller pieces as they came off grill. The spinach was wilted, and I tossed it with the squash, onions, and some crumbled gorgonzola.

I'd considered adding some pecans, but I decided against it at the last minute. I don't think they would have worked in terms of texture.

The result? A relatively light, healthy vegetable dish that still managed to evoke Thanksgiving. Definitely a success.