Welcome the season with an autumn salad layered with roasted kabocha squash, honeycrisp apples, homemade oat crackers, and a tangy Dijon dressing!

I am in denial that is is that time of year to say farewell to summer and head back to school (luckily it’s my last year though, hurray!) I love to wear sleeveless tops, shorts, rompers, and sandals. Feeling the sun’s rays kiss my skin, blue skies on repeat, and warm evenings are what I live for. Summer is my favourite season to be alive, but fall is my favourite season for baking and cooking! Despite the cooler and wetter weather and the impending tsunami of exams, I’m so excited for endless roasted vegetables, cozy baked treats, and pumpkin-freaking-everything. I hope you’re ready!

September also means returning to routine. I’m a creature of habit so routine is actually something I don’t mind at all. I’ve got my yoga schedule penciled into my planner already and know where I need to be everyday for the next month. Since school hasn’t picked up yet, Chew and I met up to finish watching Jurassic World. We started it over a year ago and stopped at the climax of the film, so since then we’ve been waiting for the time to find out if the Indominus rex gets stopped or not. We tried once to finish it when Chew surprised me and crashed my family vacation in Whistler but we started too far in and both of us were so lost because we had forgotten what was going on. We also couldn’t stay awake because both of us are grannies and feel drowsy by 9pm. So anyways, she came over my apartment this past week with ‘mystery snacks’ (they were these gooseberry-looking things that were smaller and green and tasted like tomatoes) and we finally finished the movie.

Then we scrolled through Netflix to see what else we could watch and started Riverdale. Yes, I know we’re very late to the game. Before the first episode even ended we knew we were hooked. Uh oh, looks like Riverdale nights are going to be a regular thing this term. See? Routine can be fun! Casual little social nights like these make school a lot more bearable; it gives me something to look forward to when the weekend is too far away to even conceptualize. We used to have Bachelor night and Castle dinners at other friends’ apartments before they graduated and moved out. Now it’s just us two weirdos left so you’ll find us huddled on my hideous floral sofa, wrapped in a vintage Pooh blanket, snacking on Chicago mix popcorn with a best before date in 2017 (LOL), and watching Riverdale on Tuesday nights.

This salad is the perfect summer-to-autumn transition recipe, especially for the friends that live in warmer climates but still want some autumn flavour. When the weather is warm, I’m usually in the mood for lighter meals that require little-to-no hands on cooking, like salads. But not lame salads like my mom makes (sorry mom, I love you but your salads are sometimes sad…), but ones with lots of texture, each element is tasty, there’s enough but not too much dressing, and it’s actually satiating. Nothing worse than eating a bucket of iceberg lettuce, what I like to call ‘crunchy water’, and feeling like you haven’t eaten a proper lunch, then having the entire lecture hall listen to your whale of a stomach. Yikes.

I used to loathe kabocha squash as a kid. My mom makes this kabocha tomato soup and I used to whine every time she made me drink it. Now it’s my favourite soup! It’s also my favourite squash to roast (next to delicata) because it’s sweeter and less watery than butternut squash and you don’t need to peel it. As I was building this salad, I ate about half the pan of roasted squash… one for me, one for the salad. This autumn salad is also tossed with honeycrisp apples freshly picked by yours truly (although any variety will do), my highly-requested oat crackers, and some red cabbage because it’s pretty and pretty food makes me happy.

After our trip to a local apple orchard on Labour Day, Chew hosted a rosé and cheese night for our closest girl friends as a final salute to summer. She even crafted her own picnic table and got string lights and pillows and everything! It was such a fun night, one that will be remembered for years to come. Whenever I ask what I can contribute, Chew without doubt will request my crackers. It’s truly a honour to have a recipe that you’re known for. Extra helpful when it’s a one-bowl recipe that can be whipped up in less than 20 minutes! Even though you won’t need much for your salad (if you’re a big fan of croutons, then load it uppppp) I encourage you to make the oat crackers and enjoy them with hummus, cheese, or on their own as a snack.