Kazia Jankowski - big world | small kitchen

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A Heartfelt Thanksgiving Salad

When my boyfriend Eli, who’s informed me that I don’t have the use a pseudonym Don, invited me to his friends’ Thanksgiving dinner last Sunday, I quickly offered to make a salad. A salad is healthy. A salad is affordable. A salad is easy.

Or it should be.

But like I often do, I picked my salad recipe with my heart, not my head.  I wanted to use pomegranate seeds. Beets and oranges, I decided, would go well with the crunchy tart fruit. For the dressing, I would use pomegranate molasses. This would be fun. At that point, though, I should have paused and asked myself, “Kazia, when has a salad ever been quick, affordable, and fun, when it involves ingredients you don’t have, laborious steps, and long cook times?”

If I had asked myself that question, Saturday I wouldn’t have spent 30 minutes de-seeding pomegranates (and cleaning up the mess) or another hour and a half roasting and cooling beets. Sunday, when Eli arrived to pick me up for the friends’ Thanksgiving, I would have been ready in 15 minutes, not 50 minutes, because there would have been less last-minute slicing and fewer final photos to snap. (Beets and pomegranates are like kids in a photo studio—difficult to shoot.)

But if I had asked myself that question, I wouldn’t have set my Thanksgiving salad on a table of white turkey, white rolls, and white mashed potatoes and seen it pop with color and freshness. No friend of Eli’s would have turned to me mid-football game, and said, “I don’t even like beets, but I like those beets. They’re so sweet.” And Eli wouldn’t have sent me an email at the end of the day listing our sexy pomegranate beet salad photo shoot as one of our weekend highlights—even after it made him late to his party.

Maybe what I should have reminded myself last Saturday is this: Some salads are long and arduous, but they’re worth it, especially if you stop for five minutes before making them and figure out a cooking plan that lets you arrive to Thanksgiving dinner on time.

Pomegranate Beet Salad
Serves 8
Adapted from Epicurious

The contrasting colors and flavors of this salad set it apart on the Thanksgiving table. Hearty beets meet light, crunchy pomegranate seeds and sweet oranges, and the result is dark and delicious. A couple of recipe tips: You can buy pomegranate molasses at Whole Foods—and prepping the beets and pomegranate seeds the day before makes day-of cooking much easier.

3 large beets
¼ cup orange juice (from about 1 orange)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
½ medium red onion, thinly sliced
3 oranges, peeled and cut into ¼-inch thick slices
1 cup pomegranate seeds (from one 11-ounce pomegranate)

Preheat oven to 425. Prep beets, washing and removing tail and all but 1-inch of the stems. Wrap each beet in two sheets of aluminum foil. Bake for 1 to 1 ¼ hours, until a knife easily pierces beets. Let cool, peel, and cut into 1/3-inch wedges.

In a large bowl, whisk orange juice, vegetable oil, pomegranate molasses, red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.

Place onion in a small bowl, cover with cold water. Let stand 1 minute, drain, and pat onions dry with a kitchen towel.

Add beets, onions, orange slices, and pomegranate seeds to vinaigrette bowl. Toss to combine, and serve.

For a printable recipe, click here.

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