Arugula, Pomegranate, and Goat Cheese Salad

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arugula, pomegranate, and goat cheese salad
Light and tasty!

Whew! After all that cake last week, we need something light, like a salad. We often have salads and generally don’t write them up because they’re basically wash, chop, and add dressing, but this salad tasted so good that we thought that we’d share it with you.

This is a 100% scratchin’ original recipe, so, while you might find similar salad recipes elsewhere, they’re hollow imitations of this one. Well, they might be good, too, but we still like our version.

Arugula, Pomegranate, and Goat Cheese Salad

Servings: 2 servings
Author: Shawn

Ingredients

  • 1/2 bunch arugula washed and torn into bite-size pieces
  • 2 ripe tomatoes cut into wedges
  • 1 small cucumber peeled and cut into pieces
  • 1/2 red bell pepper sliced into rings
  • 2-3 Tbs pomegranate arils
  • 2 Tbs roughly chopped walnuts
  • 2 ounces fresh goat cheese crumbled
  • Grey sea salt or other large crystal salt, such as kosher
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • Extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions

  • Divide arugula, tomatoes, cucumber, and bell pepper between two large bowls. Distribute arils and walnuts over each salad, followed by the goat cheese crumbles. Sprinkle with a very small pinch of sea salt and a grind of black pepper. Drizzle with about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar and an equal amount of olive oil.
  • Serve immediately.

Ingredient discussion:

One time we were eating at a restaurant downtown, and our dish came topped with a bit of arugula. We’d forgotten reading that on the menu, so we tasted it to see what it was. It didn’t taste like much of anything, so we asked the waitstaff. Informed that it was arugula, we expressed disbelief, since it didn’t have that strong peppery flavor that we are used to. The waitperson checked with the kitchen, and, yes, it was arugula. The lesson is that not all arugula is equal. You can have bland, insipid arugula, probably grown in a greenhouse, or you can get some arugula with flavor. Try your local farmers’ market. Same thing goes for all the other vegetables listed. For the pomegranate arils, take the time to discombobulate a pomegranate; we once purchased one of those “wonderful” tubs and found that most of the arils were mushy and leaking juice. Ugh. Gross. For the goat cheese, we use Black Mesa Ranch cheese. They do a great job keeping the goats happy, and happy and healthy goats mean healthy cheese that makes you happy. Balsamic vinegar is all over the place in price and quality. We buy Trader Joe’s Gold label Balsamic Vinegar of Modena. It’s a good vinegar at a good price. For olive oil, seek out true extra-virgin olive you like the taste of. It should have flavor, sometimes a lot of flavor, enough flavor to make you cough if you sip some. Extra-virgin olive oil is not a neutral oil like canola.

Procedure in detail:

There’s really a lot of detail to making a salad, so we’ll just let this section drop by the wayside.

As we said above, we liked this salad. So much so, that we had it two days in a row using up the fresh vegetables that we picked up in our CSA share this past week. We especially like the bit of salt on the salad, as it seems to bring out the sweetness in the balsamic vinegar, and with just a small drizzle of olive oil, the salad stayed nice and light. Five stars.

Worth the trouble?

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