Kale and apple salad with pomegranate vinaigrette

Summa Summa Summa time!

Its about that time when we mix veggies and fruits. The lovely and highly anticipated summer months are here. I too have joined the club but instead of bringing you the typical Cesar salad which is clearly the official salad of summer BBQ’s or worse the ready-made flavorless salad in a bag, you get this;  A fresh, crunchy, tangy, sweet, oniony and yummaaaay Kale salad. Yes you can eat kale raw, taste just like lettuce I promise.

I love crunch in a salad, maybe that’s why I enjoyed this one. The pomegranate seeds are crunchy, so are the apples and the kale. The vinaigrette is perfectly sweet and tangy just all around yum central! Rather than a cesar salad, I would much rather have this beside my burger and hot dog (can you tell I hate Cesar salads?)

This salad is a smartly crafted rip-off of a salad I made Last year at an awesome cooking class at Sur La Table in NY. My sister and I took the class; the salad of the night was a Spinach and apple salad with pomegranate vinaigrette and blue cheese topping.

While that salad was great (my sister adored it) I had a few tweaks in my mind.

1. I would have preferred a crunchier green. Spinach is so soft and subtle I felt it needed more bite
2.  They also used a blue cheese I felt was too over powering for me so I went with a goat cheese which is a bit creamier and less pungent
3.  I also added honey to my vinaigrette I felt it needed a bit more sweetness to balance out the vinegar flavors since the pomegranate juice is tangy and the apple cider vinegar even more so.

…So with that said my salad is way better :)

                                

Ingredients (printable ingredient list)

1 bunch kale

1 apple

½ cup pomegranate seeds

Goat cheese or feta cheese crumbles 

Vinaigrette

1 shallot minced

¼  cup pomegranate juice (reduced to 2 tablespoons of syrup)

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

¼ cup grape seed oil

Salt/black pepper to taste 

Greedy tips:

• The cooking instructor used something called a pomegranate molasses; I didn’t even attempt to search for this here in Jamaica as I knew it would be futile. I just reduced down some pomegranate juice. If you have pomegranate molasses or know where to find it use it. If it’s sweetened omit the addition of honey, however if it’s unsweetened use the honey. 

Xoxo Greedygirl