Another attempt at making our table a little more diverse and out of the ordinary this Thanksgiving—switching our usual fresh cranberry sauce recipe for this tomato + pomegranate salad from Yotam Ottolenghi’s latest cookbook Plenty More. His earlier book, Plenty, was the inaugural cookbook in our Cookbook Club and, while it wasn’t even close to 100% vegan, the book was wildly innovative and very vegetable-forward.
KCRW’s Good Food featured the recipe on their blog a few weeks back, quoting Ottolenghi as saying that it was inspired by a salad he tried in Istanbul and calling it “the definition of freshness with its sweet-and-sour late-summer flavors.” Perfect for autumn in Los Angeles!
We’ve taken the liberty of reposting the recipe below, for the truly lazy surfer of the Web.
Tomato and Pomegranate Salad
Serves four
1 1/3 cups/200 g red cherry tomatoes, cut into ¼-inch/5-mm dice
1 1/3 cups/200 g yellow cherry tomatoes, cut into ¼-inch/5-mmdice
1 1/3 cups/200 g tiger or plum tomatoes, cut into ¼-inch/5-mm dice
18 oz/500 g medium slicing tomatoes (about 5), cut into¼-inch/5-mm dice
1 red pepper, cut into ¼-inch/5-mm dice (1 cup/120g)
1 small red onion, finely diced (rounded ¾ cup/120g)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ tsp ground allspice
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1½ tbsp pomegranate molasses
¼ cup/60 ml olive oil,plus extra to finish
1 large pomegranate, seeds removed (1 cup/170 g seeds)
1 tbsp small oregano leaves salt
Mix together all the tomatoes, the red pepper, and the onion in a large bowl and set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, allspice, vinegar, pomegranate molasses, olive oil, and a scant 1/2 teaspoon salt until well combined. Pour this over the tomato mixture and gently mix.
Arrange the tomato mixture and its juices on a large, flat plate. Sprinkle the pomegranate seeds and oregano over the top. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and serve.
Photo by Jonathan Lovekin.
