Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The Veggie Queen's Favorite Fall Salad For Thanksgiving

I actually have 2 favorite fall salads but this is the most special of them because it uses fresh pomegranate arils (seeds) in it. This salad gets people's attention which I like. No one will say that it's boring. If there are any ingredients that you can't get, substitute, except for the pomegranate seeds which is essential.

Bright Autumn Salad
Serves 4
Most of these ingredients are native to my area of Northern California. If you cannot find them, substitute the most colorful and freshest seasonal fruit. You are aiming for a colorful salad that is sweet, tart, crunchy and bitter. I imagine that the Native Americans living where I do would have served this for their Thanksgiving meal using local, wild bitter greens instead of endive or radicchio.

1 medium head radicchio or 3 small heads of Belgian endive, sliced into shreds, or arugula (any bitter green)
2 fuyu (firm, flat Asian) persimmons, seeded if necessary, and diced
½ POM wonderful fresh pomegranate, cut, arils (seeds) removed to be used to equal 2 cups (save the other half to make more salad or just double the recipe)
2-3 kiwi, peeled and diced
¼ cup or more dried cranberries
¼ cup toasted slivered or sliced almonds
1-2 tablespoons raspberry or other fruit vinegar (optional)

Cut the bitter greens or reds into shreds. Put on a plate.

In a medium bowl, combine the persimmons, pomegranate, pineapple guava, and most of the cranberries and almonds. Arrange the combined mixture over the shredded bitter greens. Top with the remaining cranberries and almonds. Drizzle fruit vinegar over the top, if desired, right before serving.


Enjoy.

6 comments:

Sharon said...

I don't know if you changed the header on your blog or I just never read it before, anyway, the wording is excellent. Recent addition or a long time ago, at some point you worked on it! Well done.

The Veggie Queen said...

Oh, thank you Sharon for noticing. I appreciate it. It's pretty much the way that it's been although I did tweak about 3 words last week.
How's the pressure cooking going?

Sharon said...

Pressure cooking is on the back burner for now, so to speak. A new grandchild a thousand miles away meant I spent 3 weeks in another state helping my daughter.

But on returning home, I tried the salad even though my husband has told me for years he doesn't like fruit in a salad of greens. I scribbled down the ingredients, bought escarole by mistake instead of Belgian endive, forgot the cranberries and the result was still delicious. Thanks for something new in our repertoire.

The Veggie Queen said...

You know that they say necessity is the mother of invention. I believe that great recipes are born from using the "wrong" ingredients. Glad to hear that your husband liked the salad.

Escarole is something many people never buy, so good for you.

When you settle back into life, pressure cooking will return, too, I am sure.

Congratulations on the new grandchild.

VV said...

The salad sounds so wonderful! I have always wanted to find out how to make a good Waldorf salad too. Maybe some day you will post a recipe.

The Veggie Queen said...

I won't likely do a traditional Waldorf salad ever but they are easy to do with apples, celery, walnuts -- usually in a creamy dressing, and that's where I deviate. I don't care for mayonnaise or anything that's like it.