This winter salad is perfect for the holiday season. It’s hearty, rich in flavors, textures, and colors, and is beautiful individually plated or served family-style. I most recently made it as part of our Thanksgiving dinner and adults and kids loved it equally.
It’s important to include nutrient dense dishes (such as this salad) at holiday meals to ensure we can maintain our energy levels and also our immune systems through the sometimes hectic and germ-filled holiday season. I employ a basic nutrition-hack frequently throughout the year, but especially at the holidays when we’re all prone to overconsumption — fill up at least half your plate with a salad or other vegetable side-dishes. Then have smaller portions of the rest of the meal. This one little strategy makes it far more difficult to become overly full on things that don’t provide much nutrition (mashed potatoes, bread, corn, dessert).
- Dressing:
- 1Tbl minced shallot
- ¼ C. Apple cider vinegar
- 2 Tbl pomegranate syrup (*See note in instructions, will need to purchase pomegranate concentrate and boil down to make the syrup.)
- ⅓ C avocado oil
- 1 tsp honey
- ¼ tsp salt
- ground pepper to taste
- Salad:
- Avocado oil, salt, and pepper for roasting
- 2 bunches kale
- 1 apple sliced thin
- 2 large beets
- 1 small delicata squash
- ½ seeded pomegranate
- 1 C marcona almonds
- Dressing:
- *To make pomegranate syrup, place 1 cup of pomegranate concentrate into a small, thick-bottomed saucepan and simmer, stirring frequently, until the liquid has been reduced by half and is a syrup-like consistency. This should take 10-15 minutes. Let the syrup cool before making the dressing.
- Add all dressing ingredients to bowl and whisk vigorously to combine. Set aside until salad is ready.
- Salad:
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Wash beets and delicata squash.
- Dice beets into 1" cubes and place in bowl. Toss beets with 2 Tbl avocado oil, and some salt and pepper.
- Cut delicata squash cross-wise into 1" wide disks. Remove the seeds from the disk interior. Place disks into a bowl and toss with 2 Tbl avocado oil, salt and pepper.
- Place beets and squash onto 2 separate parchment-lined baking trays and place into oven for roasting.
- Roast beets and squash for about 25 minutes (or until the squash flesh is lightly browned and the beets are cooked through). Be sure to flip the squash and stir the beets half-way through roasting.
- Remove beets and squash from oven and let cool to room temperature.
- Once squash is cool, cut disks into bite-sized pieces.
- Wash and dry kale, then separate the greens from the stem.
- Chop greens into bite-sized pieces and place in large salad bowl. Massage kale for 2-3 minutes to soften the texture and remove some of the bitter compounds.
- Slice apple into thin, bite-sized slices.
- Seed ½ of a pomegranate.
- If making a family style salad — step 1: add the beets, squash, apple, and most of the pomegranate seeds and almonds to the bowl with the kale. Step 2: toss the salad with the dressing. Step 3: top salad with the remaining almonds and pomegranate seeds.
- If making individual plated salads — follow steps 1 and 2 above, then put the salad onto the individual plates and then proceed to top each salad with remaining almonds and pomegranate seeds.