Under the headlight, the salamander is starting to turn pink (7)
I believe the answer is:
leftist
'turn pink' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'under the headlight the salamander is starting' is the wordplay.
'under' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the headlight' becomes 'l' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'salamander' becomes 'eft' (eft is a kind of salamander).
'starting' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'eft'+'is'='eftis'
't' put after 'eftis' is 'eftist'.
'l' put next to 'eftist' is 'LEFTIST'.
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for leftist that I've seen before include "Area" , "Radical politician" , "Labour Party member" , "Labourite" , "Communist" .)