Heidi Swanson, author of www.101cookbooks.com and one of my favorite cookbooks, Super Natural Cooking, had these two recipes on her website. I made both of these after work on day before going to a Halloween gathering. I'll share with you my variations.

Warm Red Cabbage Salad
Swanson's recipe for Warm Red Cabbage Salad originally comes from the Tassajara Cookbook. This is another cookbook from the Tassajara Zen Buddhist retreat center in California. Their cuisine is vegetarian.  My variations on Swanson's adaptation include using goat cheese rather than feta and adding extra raisins; I love the sweetness of goat cheese. If you choose to use goat cheese rather than feta, make sure the salad has cooled a bit, as the goat cheese will melt and the salad will become creamy. Only put in extra raisins if you feel your company would enjoy them, I noticed a few folks picked out the raisins and onions. The ingredients are: sunflower seeds, onions, garlic, red cabbage, fresh rosemary, raisins, balsamic vinegar and goat cheese. The cabbage is cooked till tender with the sauteed garlic and onions but not so much that it collapses, you don't want soft cabbage. Swanson's recipe can be found on her website. It is quite good and a great way to use the fresh red cabbage available this time of year.


Roasted Pumpkin Salad
Swanson's Roasted Pumpkin Recipe is another quite delicious warm salad. I plan on making adaptations of this recipe in the future by using a variety of grains and vegetables. The salad is made with a wild rice medley, folded with roasted pumpkin and red onions. The dressing is a blend of wildflower honey, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and lime juice. Fresh chopped cilantro is folded in. Use a butternut squash or a similar squash that will hold its' shape as a sugar pumpkin will have the tendency to break down when you fold it in. Swanson calls for lemon juice but I had lime juice readily available; lime and cilantro is a good combination. The purple hues in the wild rice are a nice contrast to the orange squash and work well with the red onions. Leave the onions in circles, and they'll lay nicely in the serving bowl as you'll see in Swanson's beautiful photo.