Red Lettuce Salad With Blue Cheese
Since renaming this blog several months ago, I have spent hours revamping my blog format and resizing photos. Only two months ago I was ready to throw in the towel completely, mentally hanging a big Do Not Resuscitate sign on it. But something stopped me.I am not ready to let go. So many of my blogger friends from 2006 are no longer blogging and I miss them. Their comments and e-mails got me through a time of transition, while offering suggestions and encouragement. So I'm not ready to stop blogging.
Instead I began curating, as they say today - I call it editing - my own archives, deleting hastily written or ill-conceived posts - surely there is more to come, or should I say go? - and evaluating posts that were effective, or just plain delicious. This is one that originally ran in 2007.
I still make this salad several times a year. It's so tasty, and a great foil for any savory meal. And colorful: The pomegranate arils, which provide such sweet bursts of flavor, look like little rubies tucked away amidst the lettuce. But now I think I want it. Our menu has been heavy lately, lots of stews and casseroles and one-dish meals. All very savory, I might add.
This fresh salad is a perfect light dish for this time of year, a pleasant way to put the gastronomic excesses of the holidays and winter far behind you. It is delicious with any meal, or by itself.
Red Salad with Blue Cheese
- small head of red lettuce
- 1 small red onion, chopped or sliced
- 3/4 cup pomegranate arils (or dried cranberries)
- 1/2 cup roasted pecans, coarsely chopped
- 1/3 cup blue cheese
- Pomegranate or raspberry balsamic vinegar for dressing
I make this for holiday potlucks and its always a hit. The blue cheese can be optional; I never add it until the last minute, once I'm sure everyone at the potluck eats it. You can add butter and brown sugar to your pecans for roasting. Frankly, you can toss in whatever you have on hand.
Note: Want to peel a pomegranate? Here's how.
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
Comments
This is Wisconsin, but apparently blue cheese is an acquired taste for some.
I acquired the taste for it at birth.
Wisconsin is an odd state, and a topic for a future post.
Favorite pomegranate recipes, anyone?
Mimi this is a wonderful salad and one of my very favorite variations. You are so right on with it.
Those little arils are like grains of fleur de sel, Tanna, little gifts for the taste buds.
Regarding the pomegranates as snacks for kids, they're totally smart--not just for nutrition's sake, but because they're an interactive food that will entertain kids as much as they feed them. and create those wonderful memories.
Tell us about your dressings, please, Mimi. Or maybe in another post.
I am missing one ingredient...
Yeah, pomegranates are entertaining! My father is the one who introduced them to us when we were younger. Lu's mother was ahead of her time. . .
Back to dressings, I am usually inspired by something I see in a bottle and I think: I can do better fresh.
Best blue cheese thing I ever had was at a party in the the Green Bay Packers locker rooms. (No, I know what you are thinking; it was not that kind of party. I don't even like football. It was a business reception.)
Anyway, fresh grapes were coated with blue cheese and then crusted with sugared walnuts.
Mon Dieu!
I promise I don't use croutons, Kalyn.
"You're quite right about simple recipes without miles of ingredients. I subscribe to an opinion expressed by a wonderful Italian chef [whose name escapes me right now] that too many ingredients muddy the taste and don't let any one flavor shine through."
If you haven't already, check out Terry's blog, Blue Kitchen.
Who can resist a blog with the tag line, "Good Food. Great Stories. I Swear."
Brilliant. The first time I saw it, I was insanely jealous. Why didn't I think of that?
BTW, do you write for a living?
(I swear, too!)