Hallelujah, it is Friday! Lately I’ve been juggling work, my beloved blog and a few projects that are near to my heart, but my fingers have been hitting all the wrong keys lately. I’ve caught myself sending choppy stream-of-consciousness emails that make sense to no one, including myself. Communicating with many, but saying nothing of value.
I need to get lost in some fiction, go on long walks with Cookie, breathe deeply and stretch my limbs. I need all of that, plus some good conversations with friends, before I’ll have anything worth saying. I feel like I say this over and over again. So it goes.
Please, if you can find pomegranates this late in the season, make this Ottolenghi-inspired salad. Brilliant ruby-hued pomegranate arils, crunchy celery and dark quinoa make it a colorful study in textural contrasts. Allspice warms up this simple salad, which seems to be a wintery take on my quinoa tabbouleh recipe. I dare say you’ll finish your bowl and go back for just one more forkful, then another, and another.
Ottolenghi’s original recipe in Plenty calls for barley instead of quinoa, sherry vinegar instead of balsamic, and the addition of dill. It was good, but I like my way better.
By the way, if you haven’t picked up a copy of Ottolenghi’s Plenty, I highly recommend doing so. It is a stunning vegetarian cookbook, full of unconventional recipes that feature a mélange of Middle Eastern and European flavors thanks to Ottolenghi’s upbringing by European parents in Israel. The food photography is good enough to justify the purchase in itself. As cookbooks by professional chefs tend to be, the ingredient lists can be a bit long, and the instructions exacting, but it is a cookbook I’m glad to have in my collection.
| Pomegranate Quinoa Salad |
- 1 cup black or red quinoa, rinsed well in a mesh colander
- 6 stalks of leafy organic celery, leaves picked and reserved, cut into a small dice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- salt and pepper, to taste
- loose 1/2 cup curly parsley, chopped
- 2 pomegranates, arils carefully removed (here’s how)
- Pour the rinsed quinoa into a medium sized pot on the stove. Add two cups of water and bring the mixture to a boil.
- Cover and simmer for fifteen to twenty minutes, until the water is absorbed. In the meantime, chop your celery and parsley. Once it’s done, remove from heat and fluff the quinoa with a fork.
- Drain the quinoa and transfer to a mixing bowl. While it is still hot, mix in the celery, olive oil, vinegar, allspice and salt and pepper. Stir to combine, and leave it to cool completely, or close to it.
- Once cool, add the parsley, celery leaves and pomegranate arils. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary (more vinegar or salt and pepper), then serve.
- Adapted from Ottolenghi’s Barley and Pomegranate Salad in Plenty.
- Serve 4 to 6 with ample portions.
- Celery is offender no. 2 on the dirty dozen list, so it is worth buying organic. It’s still cheap!
20 Comments
Oh I love pomegranates! I love adding them to anything I can. This salad looks lovely and so bright and healthy. Have a great weekend!
Black quinoa is one of my favorite things! We better enjoy the pomegranates before they’re gone, and this is a lovely way to do it.
Beaaauuuuutiful photos! And if there’s room in that bowl for MY ENTIRE LIFE, let me know.
Beautiful recipe, Kate. I haven’t had black quinoa so I must find some. I have been in a “grains” kick trying different types, and quinoa is by far my favorite.
This looks great! Thanks for sharing your version. It looks easy to make and very tasty.
One thing – I’m sure you meant 1/4 cup Olive Oil, not 14 cup.
Thank you for catching that! I’m fixing it now.
Beautiful, classy, delicious. I want this.
this sounds so yummy!!
As much as I hate the whole pomegranate aril picking process, this looks like it’s worth it!
I love this so much…it looks SOOO good! I love salads that are meals!
Gorgeous salad! Love all of the flavors!
I just ordered Plenty, as well as a few other cookbooks to add to my collection. I can’t wait to start working through it! Thanks for the recipe, it looks delish.
This is so pretty! I love quinoa in salads. And am also totally guilty of rambling, nonsensical emails that seem totally understandable while I’m writing them. One of my old professors called this non-linear thinking. :) Maybe that’s just what we are!
Looks great-love dark quinoa. Great pics!
i know the feeling of not making any sense! these shots are absolutely stunning though so you clearly have some brain power left!!
Plenty is probably one of my most thumbed cookbooks – I love Ottolenghi’s recipes. This looks gorgeous – the pomegranate seeds are like little jewels.
Such a beautiful colorful salad!
I just love Ottolenghi’s recipes, they really have wonderful fresh flavors.
I have a confession….I have never had a pomegranate before! Yikes…I need to jump on this recipe. I also have been meaning to pick up a copy of Plenty. So beautiful and inspiring.
Yum, such a beautiful and inspirational salad Kate. Must try!
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[...] things.-A very eager bodyrocker wanting to eat clean.-An attempt to resist the remaining hand pies.-Kate’s recent recipe.I love having salads like this on hand to eat a little bit of with different meals. [...]
[...] Pomegranate Quinoa Salad from Cookie and Kate [...]
[...] I like to rotate my grains, I am particularly fond of quinoa and eager to try my hand at Kate’s version of this recipe with quinoa and balsamic [...]
[...] I adapted this pretty salad from a recipe I learned at an Asian seafood cooking class last month. Chef Forster created it as a side salad for salmon, but I turned it into a more filling dish by adding wild rice and edamame. He added chopped celery for fun since celery is new in Asia and booming in popularity. Celery! A novelty! Who knew?! While I generally skip celery sticks on those boring, ubiquitous veggie platters, I feel that chopped celery is totally underrated in salads. It adds such a great crunch and flavor to mixed salads like this one (and this one). [...]