Kale, spinach, pomegranate, and walnuts

I love simple and healthy salads. This is one of those salads that is so simple to make but has excellent flavour.

The salad is full of crunch and flavour from the baby kale. The dressing and spices add sweet, nutty and spicy notes to the salad, bringing it alive on your palate. The beautiful Aleppo pepper adds the zing that complements the tartness of the salad, and the pomegranate seeds add a delightful sour pop. This is a salad that you will fall in love with, and it is so simple to make.

This is a fantastic cookbook by a British chef who specialises in cuisines from the Middle East and Turkey. It is filled with recipes for kebabs, stews, other Turkish favourites, and some more contemporary dishes. Everything I have cooked from this book has been fantastic; it is one of my favourite Turkish cookbooks.

For more wonderful recipes from this cookbook, click here.

Ingredients:

8 oz. baby kale

18 oz. baby spinach

2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

3 onions, finely sliced

1/4 cup walnuts, lightly toasted till aromatic

A handful of dill

1 tablespoon Aleppo pepper

Seeds from 1 small pomegranate

Salt, to taste

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Juice of 1/2 lime

Mix the pepper, cinnamon, pomegranate molasses and olive oil well and set aside for the flavours to come together.

Fry the onions in the oil on medium-low heat till the onions are dark golden and well caramelised. Drain on paper towels and set aside.

Toss the spinach and kale leaves together. The original recipe calls for them to be blanched, but I prefer them to be crisp.

Top with the cooled fried onions, walnuts, dill, Aleppo pepper and pomegranate seeds, sprinkling them decoratively over the greens.

Bring the salad to the table and drizzle the dressing on. Toss well and serve immediately.

Note: The dressing is acidic and will wilt the leaves over time. Add to the salad just before serving.