Winter Salad

Spring has nearly sprung, so I’m getting in my last few winter posts that have been waiting to be shared.  This one’s from December.

When fall rolls around bringing with it the fresh crop of apples, one of my favorite salad dinners is apple and cheddar on greens with maple vinaigrette.  As fall chills to winter, this remains a favorite, but with a new addition – pomegranite seeds!  There is something particularly wintery about the lovely red globes showing up in grocery stores and on the fruit carts around New York.  I think it may stem back to my step mother who used to fill a beautiful blue glass bowl with the winter fruit during the holidays.  She never ate them, but I always loved them as a child, more for the challenge and surprise of pulling out the layers and layers of seeds than for the sweet-sour burst that I now love.

So, my fall salad slightly transformed becomes a lovely winter dinner.  Simple, quick to prepare, beautiful to look upon, and oh so tasty in the mouth.

Full disclosure – I am drifting from my usual local focus with the pomegranites, but I can’t resist their allure.  As the season winds down and we are reduced to squash, sweet potatoes and greenhouse greens, it is easier to allow items grown in warmer climes into my kitchen.  Still, many of the ingredients to this salad are locally available for me, the greenhouse arugala, the cheddar cheese, the apples, the maple in my vinaigrette.  Local purists will have to forgive me for olive oil, mustard and pomegranite.

A winter’s salad

Ingredients – salad

• plate-full of arugala (or lettuce or your favorite greens, I like spicy greens with the apple and cheese)
• 1 apple
• 1 serving cheddar cheese cut into small cubes
• 1 handful pomegranite seeds (this is less than 1/4 of a full fruit, thankfully they store well)

Ingredients – dressing

• dollop of your favorite mustard, try different ones to see which character you like best
• small spill of maple syrup
• larger spill of rice or cider vinaigar
• 2 times as much oil as vinaigar
• a pinch of salt (depending on taste and the amount of salt in your mustard)
• several good grinds of pepper

The whole thing comes together quickly and makes for an excellent dinner, with a slice of crusty bread, so long as you aren’t chilled to the bone.  If so, make soup instead.