Salad bar: pomegranate seeds and raw beets

I bought Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi as a present for someone. (I think that the recipient can guess who she is. Surprise....) I had to skim it before sending it. (Yup, you're getting a pre-read book.) One of the first recipes is for a tomato and pomegranate salad, which can also be found online.

I changed the recipe in two ways. First, I used chopped raw sweet onion instead of chopped raw red onion, partly because I had a sweet onion but no red onion and partly because I can't look at a raw red onion in a salad now without hearing Scott Conant, a frequent judge on Chopped, whining about raw red onion. (Yes, I do watch too much television.) Second, I put chopped parsley on the salad instead of oregano. The salad was great. It sounded like it'd be odd, but it really worked.

Next up, Oregon salad with a few modifications. I didn't have any red cabbage, so I used a mix of kale and red oak leaf lettuce. I also added pomegranate seeds to the salad. (I had bought a couple of pomegranates. If you don't know about getting seeds out in water, which is easy and will leave your hands unstained, check out this video from Saveur.)

Verdict: The red oak leaf lettuce did not hold up as well as the red cabbage does, but the pomegranate seeds were a nice addition.

I had read in several places that you could use raw beets in salads. I had also read that you could use raw Brussels sprouts. So I made a salad that incorporated both. This salad had romaine lettuce, thinly sliced raw beets, thinly sliced brussel sprouts, julienned raw kohlrabi, and pepitas. I made a warm dressing by sautéing a couple of shallots in olive oil, then adding a heaping tablespoon of dijon mustard and some white wine vinegar.

I'll admit that I was worried that this salad could end up being horrible. But it wasn't. It turned out really well. I'd definitely make this salad again.