As I was planning this menu, I thought the red thread would be pomegranate or cranberries. They are the fruit of the season; it is fresh and incredibly pretty. I found recipes for salads with both of these (mostly also including cheese, but I’m not a big fan except for parmiggiano in Cesar’s salad dressing) and then settled for pomegranate, because I happened to pick up a pretty one from the supermarket that week.

This salad was incredibly delicious, sweet and light and we all really enjoyed eating it. It would work well on its own, but due to its many colors it makes a great dish to serve guests. I very much recommend that you try it at home. Even just the mango dressing is worth trying out if you don’t happen to have any of the other ingredients at home. Unfortunately I am very uncreative when it comes to salads, so I am still learning how to make more than just the four or five dressings that I have come to try out over the years. One word of advice though: it’s a bit of a pain to de-seed a pomegranate, none of the great examples for making it easier I found on YouTube (hitting the back of the pomegranate with a wooden spoon) worked, so ensure to calculate a bit of time for the endeavor of de-seeding. Also, if you cannot find these exact types of salads, I wouldn’t fret. Just use whatever mix that you can find and work with that. That is how we did it.

Green Salad garnished with roasted pecans, fresh pomegranate seeds and a mango dressing

Ingredients (for five small plates)
200g mache (also known as field salad or lamb’s lettuce)
75g rocket
50g miner’s lettuce
60g pecan halves
120g pomegranate seeds

Dressing
100g mango (you can use frozen)
1 tbsp honey (for a vegan option substitute with maple butter or agave syrup)
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp olive oil
½ tbsp. fresh parsley and oregano
water as required to make a smooth dressing
salt and pepper to taste

Wash the mache, the miner’s lettuce and the rocket and carefully pat them dry.

Place all of the dressing’s ingredients into your mixer and pulse for a minute or two, until the mango has been pureed entirely and you have a homogenous and smooth liquid. This works best if you have allowed the mango to thaw for a bit. The dressing can be prepared a day ahead of time and keeps well in the fridge. You can also de-seed the pomegranate a day ahead and keep the seeds in a sealed Tupperware in the fridge.

Spread the salad greens evenly onto the five plates. Garnish generously with the pomegranate seeds.

Heat up a pan or a small pot and roast the pecan halves until they are golden brown and fragrant. Spread the pecans out evenly between the five salads plates. Sprinkle a good batch of mango dressing onto each salad and serve while the pecans are still hot.

Enjoy!