Easy kale and pomegranate salad – perfect for Christmas dinner and plenty more besides.
Kale salad with pomegranate, apple and mustard vinaigrette – a wonderfully fresh salad with plenty of crunch, sweetness and great flavour. Here you get the classic combination of kale, juicy pomegranate seeds and crisp apples, tossed in a mustard vinaigrette and topped with toasted hazelnuts. It simply tastes so good. A simple salad that is perfect for Christmas dinner, but which I honestly think deserves a place on the table all year round.
I love a good kale salad, especially when it has just the right balance between fresh, sweet and crunchy. The pomegranate seeds give little bursts of juice, the apples add freshness, and the mustard vinaigrette brings it all together with its pleasant acidity. And then there are the toasted hazelnuts, which add a deep, nutty flavour and a little extra crunch. It is a combination that simply works.
I use fresh kale, which I strip from the tough stalks myself and rinse thoroughly. Before chopping it, I give it a good massage between my hands and squeeze the leaves a little. This makes the kale softer and more pleasant to eat without losing its lovely texture. A small trick that really makes a difference when you make kale salad.
I then toss the chopped kale with apples cut into small dice and the beautiful red pomegranate seeds. And don’t worry if you find it a bit of a hassle to get the seeds out of a pomegranate – in the recipe itself I show you how to loosen them easily.
Once the salad is assembled, I toss it with my homemade mustard vinaigrette so that all the good ingredients get a little of the dressing. Finally, I top it with roughly chopped hazelnuts, which I like to toast first. It really brings out the flavour of the nuts and gives a wonderful contrast to the fresh apples and pomegranate seeds.
Kale salad for Christmas dinner
This kale salad is close to the perfect side for both Danish roast pork (flæskesteg) and roast duck. The fresh, slightly tangy flavour is a lovely counterpoint to the rich, full-flavoured meat, and it simply looks so pretty on the Christmas table with its green leaves and little red pomegranate seeds.
But even though the salad is perfect at Christmas, it is certainly not just a Christmas salad. I happily serve it with other meals throughout the year, including pheasant and other darker, more robust types of meat. It works really well as a fresh, crunchy element alongside dishes with plenty of flavour.
And almost the best part is how easy it is to make. Just a few ingredients, a good vinaigrette and a few toasted hazelnuts – that is really all it takes to make a kale salad that tastes fantastic and looks truly inviting.
A classic kale salad with pomegranate and apple that is just as well suited to this year’s Christmas dinner as to an ordinary weeknight dinner. Fresh, crisp, full of flavour and very easy to make. I can really recommend this one.
Also delicious with pot-roasted pheasant – find the recipe here.
Kale salad with pomegranate, apple and mustard vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 1 pomegranate
- 200 g kale, chopped
- 2 apples, diced
- 40 g hazelnuts, preferably toasted – roughly chopped
Vinaigrette
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp honey
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
Method
- Score a shallow cut all the way around the skin of the pomegranate and break it in two. Hold one half cut side down over a bowl and tap the back with a wooden spoon so the seeds fall out. Repeat with the other half.Pour water into the bowl. The white membranes float to the top, so they can easily be removed. Finally, tip the seeds into a sieve and leave them to drain.
- Combine the ingredients for the vinaigrette, season with salt and freshly ground pepper and stir or shake well.
- Put the kale, pomegranate seeds and diced apple in a bowl, pour over the vinaigrette and toss well.
- Top the salad with the hazelnuts and serve.
Nutrition
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