I love simple and healthy salads. This is one of those salads that is so simple to make but has great 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 compliments the tartness of the salad and the pomegranate seeds add a sour pop that is delightful. This is a salad that you will fall in love it, and it is so simple to make.
This is an amazing cookbook by a British chef who specialized in cuisines from the Middle East and across Turkey. This book is filled with recipes for kebabs, stews and other Turkish favourites, as well as, some more contemporary dishes. Everything I have cooked from this book has been fantastic, this 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 caramelized. 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 tables and drizzle the dressing in. Toss well and serve immediately.
Note: The dressing is acidic and will wilt the leave over time. Add to the salad just before serving.