Superfoods, meet The Holiday Season.
Creating extra healthy food that’s also extra beautiful and extra delicious makes me so (SO!) happy.
This quinoa salad is a cinch to whip up and makes a delicious lunch or perfect side to any holiday meal.
Every single ingredient is a superfood in its own right; enjoy this dish often to boost your mood, increase your immune health, whittle your waist and make your skin glow. Sounds too good to be true, I know. But it’s not, so eat up!
It’s also quite easy to prepare. Don’t be intimidated by the length of the recipe, I just wanted to give you a lot of detail to help you out in the kitchen. Make a whole batch, it will go fast and keeps beautifully in the refrigerator for a few days.
Pomegranate, Kale & Quinoa Salad Recipe
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Serves 8
- 1 cup quinoa (measure uncooked)
- 1 large pomegranate, divided per instructions below
- 6 tablespoons pomegranate juice, from the pomegranate above
- 8 cups stemmed, massaged, chopped kale, per instructions below
- 1/2 cup finely celery (~ 1/8 inch dice)
- 1 cup sliced almond, lightly toasted
- 4 tablespoon fresh orange juice (e.g. juice from two clementine oranges)
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, such as Real Salt®
Methods:
To prepare the quinoa: Rinse your quinoa in a fine mesh colander until the water runs clear; allowing as much water as possible to drain. Combine the quinoa with two cups purified water in a medium pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to low and cover, simmering for about 15 minutes until all of the water is absorbed. Fluff it with a fork.
To seed and juice the pomegranate:
Firmly roll the pomegranate on the counter with the palm of your hand for about 20 seconds. Roll hard enough to break up the seeds (you’ll hear them), but not so hard that you break the fruit open. Place a strainer above a large bowl and slice the fruit in half; juice will start spilling out immediately. Rolling the pomegranate loosens the seeds, so gently squeeze each half, cut side down, through the strainer. The strainer will catch the seeds and the juice will fall into the bowl. The pith (white part) should stay with the shell, if it doesn’t you can simple pick it out. If there is a lot, place the seeds in a large bowl of room temperature water. The seeds will sink and the pith will float for easy separation.
To prepare the kale: One bunch of kale that’s been stemmed, massaged and chopped will yield about eight cups. Learn how to stem and massage in the short video below – it’s an important step so don’t skip it! It really does make it much more enjoyable to eat. Once massaged give it a good chop, all of the ingredients in this salad are small so you don’t want large pieces of kale to overwhelm it.
To prepare the almonds: I prefer to always buy raw, unsalted nuts to maximize nutrition and control sodium intake. Place your raw, unsalted sliced almonds in a small saute pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes to lightly toasted, tossing halfway through. They will be lightly fragrant and lightly golden brown. Watch them closely, nuts can burn very quickly on the stove. Slivered almonds would work just as well here too.
Recipe:
Combine the pomegranate juice, orange juice, olive oil and sea salt in the bottom of a large bowl; whisk together until emulsified. Combine the rest of the ingredients into the dressing and serve, or store in an airtight glass container in the refrigerator up to three days.
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Pomegranate, Kale & Quinoa Salad
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: Serves 8
Ingredients
- 1 cup quinoa (measure uncooked)
- 1 large pomegranate, divided per instructions below
- 6 tablespoons pomegranate juice, from the pomegranate above
- 8 cups stemmed, massaged, chopped kale, per instructions below
- 1/2 cup finely celery (~ 1/8 inch dice)
- 1 cup sliced almond, lightly toasted
- 4 tablespoon fresh orange juice (e.g. juice from two clementine oranges)
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, such as Real Salt®
Instructions
To prepare the quinoa: Rinse your quinoa in a fine mesh colander unti the water runs clear; allowing as much water as possible to drain. Combine the quinoa with two cups purified water in a medium pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to low and cover, simmering for about 15 minutes until all of the water is absorbed. Fluff it with a fork.
To seed and juice the pomegranate: Firmly roll the pomegranate on the counter with the palm of your hand for about 20 seconds. Roll hard enough to break up the seeds (you’ll hear them), but not so hard that you break the fruit open. Place a strainer above a large bowl and slice the fruit in half; juice will start spilling out immediately. Rolling the pomegranate loosens the seeds, so gently squeeze each half, cut side down, through the strainer. The strainer will catch the seeds and the juice will fall into the bowl. The pith (white part) should stay with the shell, if it doesn’t you can simple pick it out. If there is a lot, place the seeds in a large bowl of room temperature water. The seeds will sink and the pith will float for easy separation.
To prepare the kale: One bunch of kale that’s been stemmed, massaged and chopped will yield about eight cups. Learn how to stem and massage in the short video below – it’s an important step so don’t skip it! It really does make it much more enjoyable to eat. Once massaged give it a good chop, all of the ingredients in this salad are small so you don’t want large pieces of kale to overwhelm it.
To prepare the almonds: I prefer to always buy raw, unsalted nuts to maximize nutrition and control sodium intake. Place your raw, unsalted sliced almonds in a small saute pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes to lightly toaste, tossing half way through. They will be lightly fragrant and lightly golden brown. Watch them closely, nuts can burn very quickly on the stove. Slivered almonds would work just as well here too.
Recipe:
Combine the pomegranate juice, orange juice, olive oil and sea salt in the bottom of a large bowl; whisk together until emulsified. Combine the rest of the ingredients into the dressing and serve, or store in an airtight glass container in the refrigerator up to three days.
This looks amazing! I’m looking so forward to making this for my family’s Christmas celebration – thanks for sharing it, Elizabeth 🙂
You might want to include the “two cups water” in the ingredients list. 😉