You may think eating healthy means no taste. Give this sweet pumpkin a try.

This easy salad has a nice look with cute yellow color, wonderful flavor, and great health benefits.

What is Kabocha Pumpkin?

Kabocha, or often called Japanese pumpkin, is a delicious sweet buttercup squash with bright orange-yellow meat and green skin. This is rich in beta carotene, iron, vitamin C, and is also a lower carb (and calories) alternative to rice, bread, pasta or potatoes.

The Kabocha pumpkin has meaty texture and sweeter flavor than most of other squash. I think you can find the Kabocha pumpkin at a well stocked super market such as Whole Foods.

You can cook, roast, fry or mush the Kabocha pumpkin for making soup and pie filling.

What you need:
1/4 Kabocha pumpkin, about 1 lbs
1 Onion
Mayonnaise, 1/3- 1/2 cup
Salt and pepper

1) Cut the Kabocha in half with a large, heavy knife. Remove the seeds and cut into a bite-size cubes. Boil or steam until soft, about 7-10 minutes.

The Kabocha pumpkin gets cooked quicker than potato, so be careful not to overcook and make them mushy.

2) When the pumpkin is soft, drain the water and let them cool for a while.

3) In the mean time, slice the onion and sprinkle with 1-2 tbs of salt, soften them by squeezing gently. Wash them with cold water and squeeze the water off, then the onion should no longer be salty. A few sheets of kitchen paper will help well for squeezing off the water.

4) Place the pumpkin in a large bowl, add onion and mayo.

5) Toss gently, try not to crumble the pumpkin. Taste with salt and pepper if needed.

Serve immediately and enjoy! This salad is great as a starter or as a tapas with semi-sweet white wine.

I have the recipe in Japanese, too.
かぼちゃのサラダ