Squash
Any kind of squash or pumpkin would work really well. And this is their time to shine, so you can get lovely ones at this time of year. You can also scrape out the seeds, pat them dry and roast them in the same way you do the chickpeas for another little crunchy bit to toss through the salad

Grains
This salad definitely still works without grains - just up the amount of the vegetables you use. If you want to mix it up you could use bulghur wheat, or pearl barley, wild rice, puy lentils or normal cous cous. All would work really well.

Roasted veg
I love this particular combination, but you could also use red onion, cut into wedges, diced courgette (zucchini), broccoli, sweet potato or baby new potatoes. All would work really well. I also love it with beetroot. But I would boil the beetroot - you just boil them whole with the skin on until soft when poked with a knife - then the skin comes straight off and you can cut into dice.

Dressing
If you don’t like tahini - this salad also works really well with a garlicky vinaigrette - something like 3tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp honey, 1 tsp dijon mustard and 1 crushed clove of garlic. Lots of salt and pepper. Yum. Or you could try an avocado and yoghurt dressing where you blitz these up in a blender with some lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. V good.

If you want to meal prep….
Don’t add rocket to the salad you want to eat the next day or it will go too soggy. I would toss everything else together, pop it into a container and then top with a handful of rocket but just leave it on the top.

What to do with the rest of the cauliflower and butternut squash?
I tend to roast the whole lot of them even if I’m not going to use them all for this salad as I love having them in the fridge to add to different dishes throughout the week. But if you don’t want to do that, you could use them in a delicious curry the next night, or I like making as a slightly lighter option to mashed potato. Or cut into wedges and roast the next night but serve it like . Butternut squash works beautifully in a soup. Try this recipe !