Sunday 19 May 2013

Bittersweet Sensation

Insalata di Radicchio, Germogli di Ravanello & Melograno
Radicchio, Radish-Sprout & Pomegranate Salad


Here is an exotic-looking eye-catcher for you! If you like endives, chances are you might also like the slightly bitterer cousins, radicchio, especially the Trevisano variety. Yes, it is a bitter flavor, but a refreshing one at that and one you will love if you prepare nicely. Which is where I come in. Let me tell you what I did with mine this afternoon and then you decide... but I have a sneaking suspicion you may like the sound of it...

I combined the radicchio with peppery tasting radish sprouts and refreshing pomegranate for this salad, making it a rather "grown up" affair- but it's a great, sophisticated combination of flavors. Together with a lime, mustard, honey and yogurt dressing, sprinkled with dried mint and with a light drizzle of finest olive oil, this is definitely different and refreshingly good!

I started off by chopping off the ends of the radicchio and by rinsing them under running water whilst still intact. I then set them, upright, to one side, for the water to drip back out. 

In the meantime I cut open my pomegranate and removed the seeds. I always cut mine into quarters to do so, then peel the quarters back so that the seeds can be more easily reached. Usually you can pick away the thin membrane covering the seeds and get to the seeds more easily... in any case- it really is NOT that difficult.


To put this single serving salad together, I carefully sliced through the radicchio, making sure to keep the inner slices, with the thickest leaves intact, so that they could be laid out decoratively. The remaining leaves I chopped into really fine slices. I laid these out on my dish and then snipped down the radish sprouts and added them generously, then last but not least a good handful of pomegranate seeds.

The dressing was made from 1 tablespoon olive oil, I tablespoon honey, 1 tablespoon of Dijon Mustard, salt, pepper, the juice of half a lime and 5-6 tablespoons of yogurt. I stirred this all together well and drizzled it over the salad, then sprinkled the dressing with a dusting of dried mint. One last extra drizzle of good olive oil and a simple but exciting salad was ready. Do you think you are ready for this?

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