If you’re anything like me you have a few extra cans of pumpkin laying around during the months of October through December. I’m always looking for new and exciting ways to use up my extra pumpkin purée for making desserts and I like to challenge myself to make savory dishes with it as well. After a trip to our local farmers market I found myself with lots of beautiful vegetables including kale, red cabbage, and beautiful persimmons. I thought to myself “How can I use pumpkin purée with these vegetables to make something delicious?” So I came up with the idea to make a beautiful kale salad using a pumpkin purée vinaigrette.

This vinaigrette is super easy to throw together all you need is a Mason Jar with a tight fitting lid. It doesn’t get much easier than this dressing. I like to use canned pumpkin purée because it has a consistent flavor and texture no matter what time of the year I buy it. Making the dressing is simple, all you do is put all of the ingredients into your mason jar with a tight fitting lid then shake, shake, shake until it becomes one homogenous mixture. Once you have it all mixed, it’s ready to use! Like I said, it really doesn’t get more simple than this and there’s no emulsification that you need to worry about because the pumpkin puree acts as a base for the dressing.

To make my salad I took all of my beautiful farmers market veggies, mixed them together and topped it with the lovely dressing. This time I used Tuscan kale (also known as Dino Kale), red cabbage, persimmons, Midnight Moon goat cheese and pumpkin seeds. The combination of the crunchy kale and cabbage along with the tanginess of the goat cheese matched perfectly with the sweet and savory pumpkin vinaigrette.

This dressing would also go very well with your traditional spring mix, regular curly kale, and even as a coleslaw dressing to liven up your fall table. I hope you enjoy the flavors as much as I did!