A few lettuce leaves plopped on a plate with some sliced tomatoes can be fine when you're in a hurry but can get boring when repeated day after day. Instead, why not try some different combinations and include fruit in your salads? A salad of chopped pears and pomegranate seeds is anything but boring. The sweet, creamy pears contrast well with the tart, juicy pomegranate seeds. Add some chopped green onions and crunchy carrot shreds and you have a salad with texture, taste, and plenty of nutritious ingredients. To dress your salad, try a simple, sweet-tart vinaigrette that includes honey and pomegranate vinegar. You could, of course, sprinkle the salad with a bit of feta cheese and a few chopped nuts, but it's fine as it is and far better than a few lettuce leaves and tomato slices.
Pear and Pomegranate Salad -- Serves 4
4-6 cups of green leaf lettuce, washed, dried, and torn into small pieces
2 pears, washed, cored, and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup of pomegranate seeds
1/2 cup of shredded carrots
2-3 green onions, washed, trimmed, and chopped
Vinaigrette
3 tablespoons of pomegranate vinegar
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of honey
1 teaspoon of grainy Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon of lemon pepper
In a large salad bowl, add the vinaigrette ingredients and whisk them together well until they're emulsified. Add the pears, green onions, carrots, and pomegranate seeds and stir them into the vinaigrette gently. Add the lettuce and toss everything together until the lettuce is coated with the vinaigrette and everything is well mixed. Serve the salad cold.
