Pomegranate, orange and walnut salad

I had 2 friends over for dinner last night.

It was a simple, steak, potatoes and salad dinner. Something quick for a weekday night with a bitte of Shiraz kindly brought over by a friend.

We happen to be an extremely greedy bunch and chomped up all the food before we took any pictures… Again…

I can only promise pictures next time.

But here is a recipe for a delicious and refreshing salad. The troublesome bit is the pomegranate. But it gives a fabulous lift to the dish

This serves 4 for a salad side ( I suspect it would serve 5-6 but we are all extremely greedy)

Ingredients: 
Salad-
Pomegranate (1/2 if big)
Oranges (2). I happened to be able to get pink flesh oranges for these which are so sweet and delicious! I don't think these ones were blood oranges but blood oranges will taste fab for this dish
Green Apple (1)
Walnuts (100g)
Baby Butterhead Lettuce (2)
Marjoram ( Optional, I think thyme, mint will also go well with this dish)
Dressing-
Honey
Red wine vinegar
Olive Oil

1) Roast walnuts for 5 mins in oven. I feel that this gets rid of some of the bitterness of the skin.
2) Cut pomegranate into thick wedges. To get seeds out of pomegranate, I fill a bowl of water and tear the seeds out of the wedges in the water. The seeds generally sink and the cork like part of the pomegranate skin usually floats. This separates the seeds from the rest of the fruit.
3) Cut skin of orange. Segment the orange flesh.
4) Peel green apple skin, then slice green apple in thin long pieces. Put the sliced strips in a bowl of water to prevent it from turning  brown. I like green apples over red ones in this dish as it has a bit more acidity that complements the sweetness of the pink oranges and pomegranate.
4) Roast walnuts for 5 mins in oven. I feel that this gets rid of some of the bitterness of the skin.
5) Chop off bottom stem of butterhead. Wash individual leaves in a bowl of water and then dry it in a salad spinner.
6) Pick off the herbs.
7) Prepare dressing in a screwtop bottle. I mix 1 part red wine vinegar to 3 parts oil and honey to taste. I probably won't do more than 40 ml of dressing otherwise salad will be too soggy.
8) Get a large bowl, put the lettuce leafs in there. Pour half dressing at bottom of bowl and mix leaves with dressing
9) Put rest of ingredients in the bowl. Pour the amount of dressing you want and coat the rest of the ingredients with dressing by mixing. In tossing ingredients, one must be gentle so that the herbs and leaves won't be broken by the tossing motion.

An important rule- only dress the salad before serving!! Otherwise, salad will go soggy.

If you want to make the salad a meal and want to add some meat/seafood and carbs, I suggest adding prawns and couscous.

Try it and tell me what you think.

My brother suggested what will go well with it would be a Tasmania Sauvignon Blanc. It has to be from Tasmania as flavours are not too grassy and not too mineral compared to the ones from New Zealand and France. To see more on his thoughts on wine, go to www.wineandonly.info