This week I’ve mostly been inspired by the wonder that is the pomegranate! There’s something so luxurious about the jewelled red fruits and like some of the best things in life it’s a fairly complex and lengthy task to reveal the treasure within! Certainly I’m not sure my white t-shirt or the kitchen walls are going to recover any time soon after the seed extraction!
There’s some tips for extraction on the Good Food website http://bit.ly/1LnaV0i having tried the wooden spoon technique with fairly disastrous results I tried the alternative to submerge in water and although slightly more fiddly, there was less explosion of juice!
Serves 4 as an accompaniment or two as a main
Pomegranate, Avocado, Coriander and Walnut Salad
- Seeds from half a pomegranate
- 1 x Large Avocado
- Bag of baby leaf salad leaves
- Handful of chopped walnuts
- Handful of coriander leaves
- Juice and zest of one lemon
- Good quality extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper
Start by getting out the bowl you want to serve the salad in and empty the bag of lettuce leaves into it, finely slice your fresh coriander leaves and mix into the lettuce leaves. Sprinkle on the pomegranate seeds and chopped walnuts, top with sliced avocado.
Make your dressing by adding lemon juice and zest to a small bowl, adding in your olive oil (ratio 1 part vinegar to 3 parts olive oil) and season well. Whisk to combine and pour over when you’re ready to serve. The dressing for this is simple as it just needs the freshness of lemon to draw the flavours together as you have the flavour of coriander and pomegranate and anything else would be too overpowering.
Lovely and fresh, zingy accompaniment to barbecued meat – I served this with Diana Henry’s recipe for chicken with pomegranate and honey glazed chicken skewers (substituted chicken breast for thigh meat) from her Bird in the Hand book http://amzn.to/1w5wky3, halloumi and vegetable skewers (just chop halloumi and the vegetables you wish to use, lightly coat in olive oil and season and add to metal skewers and bbq!) and from Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem book http://amzn.to/1MDeqNl yoghurt and sumac sauce (omitting garlic clove and instead substituting one tablespoon of plain olive oil for garlic infused oil).
palmernoms 