Happy October, everyone! Andrew and I just got back from our honeymoon in Greece last week (it was so beautiful and the food was delicious—I’ll do a post on that soon! And yes, I’ll share some wedding photos too!), and I’m really excited to be cooking and blogging again. We tried so many tasty foods on our travels, and even though we adored the olives, cheeses, lamb, and fish, it was really the salads that we loved the most. There were seemingly endless combinations of chopped vegetables, fresh and dried fruit, nuts, and cheeses. I’ve mentioned this before about a thousand times, but autumn foods are my absolute favorite; this salad uses local(ish) autumn ingredients and is inspired by the wonderful salads we ate in Greece.
I hope you like the recipe (see below for addition/substitution suggestions). Now that I’m finally over my jet lag, I’ll be starting on those wedding/travel posts soon. Can’t wait to share some photos with you. In the meantime, here’s one of my favorites.
See you next week!
Apple Pomegranate Harvest Salad
This salad really lends itself to additions and substitutions. Feel free to add any of the following: chicken, bacon, roasted squash or pumpkin, white beans, your favorite cooked grain (quinoa, freekah, wild rice, etc.). You can also use a different cheese like fresh goat cheese or aged gouda and swap out pumpkin seeds, pistachios, almonds, etc. for the walnuts. And in addition to/instead of the kale, radicchio, and fennel, feel free to use arugula, endive, mizuna, watercress, etc. You can also add dried fruit like cranberries or cherries.
- 1 bunch lacinato kale, ribs removed, leaves cut into thin slivers
- 1 small head radicchio, halved, cored, and thinly sliced
- 1 small bulb fennel, halved, cored, and thinly sliced
- 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 medium honey crisp apple, quartered, cored, and thinly sliced
- 2/3 cup pomegranate seeds
- 4 oz. Stilton cheese, crumbled, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup toasted walnut pieces
- Vinaigrette, to taste, about 1/4 cup
serves 4 as a main dish, or 6 to 8 as a side
- In a large salad bowl, combine kale, radicchio, fennel, onion, apple, and pomegranate seeds and mix thoroughly. Mix in vinaigrette to taste and top with Stilton and walnuts.
