Warm Kale Salad With Walnuts and Pomegranate

Name: Warm Kale Salad With Walnuts and Pomegranate
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients: Salt and pepper; 2 pounds kale, stems removed; 2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses; 2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar, white-wine vinegar or sherry vinegar; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard; 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil; 1 cup toasted walnuts; 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds, or more to taste

By David Tanis

Published Nov. 9, 2022

Warm Kale Salad With Walnuts and Pomegranate — Christopher Simpson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Total Time: 30 minutes
Rating: 4(178)
Comments: Read comments

Pomegranate molasses makes a sweet-tart contribution to this salad of cooked, not raw, kale. It’s really more of a vegetable side dish, but could very well be a salad course on its own. In every bite there’s a morsel of warm kale, walnut and pomegranate. Truth be told, it is just as tasty served at room temperature. It’s also great to make ahead of time: You can cook the kale, toast the nuts and make the vinaigrette early. Then toss everything and garnish five minutes before serving.

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Ingredients

Yield:6 to 8 servings

Salt and pepper
2pounds kale, stems removed
2tablespoons pomegranate molasses
2tablespoons red-wine vinegar, white-wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
1tablespoon lemon juice
1tablespoon Dijon mustard
3tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1cup toasted walnuts
½cup pomegranate seeds, or more to taste

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

Step 1
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil over high heat.
Step 2
Wash kale in a deep basin of cold tap water. Cut or tear into 1-inch ribbons. Add kale to the boiling water and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain, cool and blot dry.
Step 3
Make dressing: Combine pomegranate molasses, vinegar, lemon juice and mustard; stir to dissolve. Whisk in olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Step 4
To serve, place kale in an ovenproof serving dish. (A 9-by-13-inch pan, large cast-iron or small Dutch oven would all work.) Add dressing and mix to coat. Transfer dish to oven and cook until kale is heated through, about 5 minutes. Top with walnuts and shower with pomegranate seeds.

Ratings

4 out of 5

178 user ratings

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Comments

uppergolf2 years ago

Recipe for homemade pomegranate molasses was posted by another reader from another recipe. 2 cups pomegranate juice 1 cup sugar Juice of one lemon Mix in a small saucepan and let it simmer down to about 1-11/2 cups. This was easy and delicious

Christy2 years ago

Rather than cook the kale, I kneaded it with the dressing and served it cold. Loved it!

Erin2 years ago

The kale turned an unappetizing brown/green color. It tasted good, but next time I will skip oven step.

Karma M5 months ago

Followed recipe with no hitches. It turned out beautifully. That being said, this IS a lot of work, stemming 2 lbs of fresh kale, including cutting through the leaf stems, rinsing, chopping, blanching, squeezing out water, etc, If you blanch the fresh kale in boiling salted water it can’t turn brown. Note: Do not skip the oven step! It tenderizes the kale and melds the flavors. I added slightly more oil and pomegranate molasses than the recipe and used raspberry vinegar which complemented the pomegranate flavors beautifully.

Tiffany7 months ago

This was fantastic! Made a test run before Thanksgiving and it's going on the menu for sure. I followed the recipe exactly - with the only exception of not using all the dressing on the kale. This was delicious and will provide a nice acidic note through the rich dishes. I am planning on chopping the walnuts down and mixing them in at the end vs. just topping so they can incorporate more.

karina1 year ago

If you don’t have pomegranate molasses, try maple syrup. And if you don’t have Pom seeds, try diced grapes. I did this and it was quite good esp with the walnuts

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