We tend to associate exciting fruit with summertime, but winter has its own beauties. Have you seen pomegranates lately? Dark red seeds, plump and bursting with flavor. And persimmons, more mild and not as well known, are worth giving a chance.

There are two main varieties: fuyu and hachiya. Fuyu are the short, flatter ones, and these are the ones you want for this salad and most other applications. (Hachiya persimmons need to be left to soften to the point you might actually think they’re bad, otherwise they can cause a very unpleasant mouthfeel.)

As always, feel free to play around with the ingredients and proportions to suit your own taste. I’ll skip the feta when I’m making this for Shabbat (a meat meal), for example. And if I don’t have ripe avocados on hand, I’ll leave those out too. It’s still delicious.

Salad Ingredients

NOTE: It’s a salad, not a cake, so feel free to adjust the proportions to suit your taste. There are no wrong amounts.

  • 10 oz spring mix
  • 2 Fuyu persimmons, peeled and sliced
  • 1 cup pomegranate seeds
  • 1 ripe avocado, sliced
  • ½ small purple onion, thinly sliced
  • ½ cup crumbled feta
  • ½ cup roughly-chopped walnuts or pecans (candied or plain)

Dressing Ingredients

  • ⅓ cup olive oil
  • 3 tbsp lemon juice
  • 3 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 2 small cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • ½ tsp kosher salt (more to taste)
  • ⅛ tsp black pepper (preferably fresh cracked)

Directions

  1. Whisk dressing ingredients together in a small bowl. Set aside.
  2. Combine salad ingredients, except the nuts, in a salad bowl. Immediately before serving, toss with the dressing (spring mix wilts very quickly, so don’t dress in advance) and top with the crushed nuts.

Serves: 6-8