
Now that we’re all in the holiday spirit (you are in the holiday spirit, right?), it’s time to roll out some holiday inspired dishes. Unfortunately, this isn’t one of them. This salad gained the title “Christmas Salad” based solely on the colors used in it: red, white, and green (and a little yellow, but you can ignore that). I suppose it could also be called “Italian Salad” because of the three colors, but that wouldn’t be very Chrismukkah-y, would it?
This salad is really easy to make and chock full of flavor and textures. The base of it is my favorite shaveable vegetable, shaved fennel. That would be the white(ish). Next comes the green, which in this case, is finely diced Japanese cucumbers. You obviously have some serious crunch going on here, right? Let’s add even more with some thinly sliced celery and celery leaves? Celery leaves? Yup. Celery is one of those majorly under appreciated vegetables, and the best part is usually always thrown out. The inner thin stalks and yellow leaves that are revealed when you peel the thick stalks away have amazing flavor, and do great things for a salad. Go try it. If you don’t like them, send them to me in the mail. I buy celery just for this inner part, oftentimes never getting to the outer ribs before they go bad.
Finally, the most important and fun part of the salad, the pomegranate seeds. I love pomegranates, and they’ve become popular over the past couple of years for their super health properties, not to mention how utterly cool they are. Of course, you have to deal with the bad part of them, which is the deep rain stains that they leave over your cutting board, counters, floors, shirt, pants, and underwear. Those little seeds are a big pain in the ass to get out, and you end up crushing half of them before you can even get to them. This problem has been solved thanks to an ingenious new piece of technology called a bowl of water. Yes, a bowl of water will solve all of your pomegranate prepping woes. Here’s how it works. Slice off the top and the bottom of the fruit, and then make 4 cuts in it, quartering it, but not all the way through the center, so it still stays intact. Lower the entire thing into the bowl of water (it should be big enough to submerge it and have plenty of room for you to maneuver your hands in there), and then section by section, pull it off, break it apart, and separate the seeds from the white inner membrane. Keep stripping the seeds off, they’ll sink to the bottom, and any white bits float to the top. When you finish one section, move on to the next. When you’re done, skim any white bits from the surface of the water, and then pour the whole thing through a strainer. You’ll end up with perfectly intact seeds and no mess. Brilliant! I think I discovered the pomegranite technique from a sign at Whole Foods, but if anyone asks, tell them I invented it, OK?
Toss the pomegranate seeds in with the fennel, cukes, and celery leaves, dress with olive oil, lemon, salt, and pepper, and you’re in business. It may not exactly fit into the hearty winter eating that goes on at the holidays, but there’s always room for crunchy salads in our house year round. Plus, pomegranites are only in season for a short while, so get them while you can. Merry Chrismukkah everybody!