Simple, healthy, and crowd-pleasing recipes, these are my favorites. This salad was featured at our Thanksgiving dinner this past year, and since everyone loved it so much it made a second appearance for Christmas.
This colorful salad is bursting with flavor and health benefits. Apples and pears provide a good source of fiber, while pecans, a high-fat nut, provide 20g fat in the form of heart-healthy mono- and polyunsaturated fats. And if you’re prone to the post-holiday cold or flu, the pomegranates in this salad, rich in antioxidants and Vitamin C, will help keep your immune system in check. The dressing is also a nice surprise, I love the hint of ginger mixed with the sweetness of the honey. I’m sure your family will love this as much as ours!
Ingredients:
Salad:
½ cup raw walnuts (halves or pieces)
5 ounces baby arugula
2 ounces crumbled vegan cheese
1 large ripe Bartlett pear, thinly sliced
1 Honeycrisp or Gala apple, thinly sliced
Arils from 1 pomegranate
Ginger dressing:
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, to taste
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
About 10 twists of freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Arrange the arugula across a large serving bowl or platter. Sprinkle the chopped pecans and crumbled cheese over the arugula. Fan out your slices of pear and apple and arrange them across the salad in sections. Sprinkle all over with walnuts and fresh pomegranate arils.
- To prepare the dressing, combine all of the ingredients and whisk until blended. Taste, and if it isn’t quite tangy enough, add another teaspoon of vinegar.
- When you’re ready, drizzle the ginger dressing lightly all over the salad (you might not need all of it). Serve promptly.
