Spinach Pomegranate Salad

One of the things I like best about this time of year is the availablity of pomegranates. The seeds from these fruits are packed with vitamin C and antioxidants, as well as betacarotene, making them a great nutritional source. Plus, they're downright tasty!


So I decided to whip up a salad using pomegranate seeds. Trouble is, it turned out so wonderfully that I forgot to take a pic before we devoured it. (The fact that my daughter was using the digital camera to chronicle the adventures of her Barbie dolls didn't help the matter either.



But anyway, here you go.





Spinach Pomegranate Salad





1 lb baby spinach leaves, torn into pieces
1/2 lb watercress sprigs, chopped
Seeds from 1 large pomegranate (remove bitter white membranes)
1 cup chopped walnuts
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp agave nectar
2 tbsp lime juice
1/4 tbsp black pepper



Mix spinach, watercress, pomegranate seeds, and walnuts in a large salad bowl.



Mix olive oil, rice vinegar, agave nectar, and lime juice. Let sit for 5-10 minutes to allow flavors to combine.



Sprinkle black pepper on salad mix, and pour in dressing. Mix well and serve.


I don't usually post salad recipes in the winter, but this salad is a great choice with a hot bowl of soup.





Visit this post to find out how you can help the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Alagille's Syndrome Alliance without spending a penny. I'd be eternally grateful!

A Contest for the Alagille's Syndrome Alliance

First, my apologies for not posting a new recipe for a few days. I've gotten mired in a ghostwriting project - one of those "what the fvck was I thinking" projects. Bah. New recipe coming soon, I promise.

Ok, so on to my rediculously off-topic post. As some of you know, my daughter has Alagille's Syndrome, a rare, life-threatening disease. She's been through 8 surgeries (including open heart surgery when she was 6 months old) in her 5 years... with more to come.

I'm participating in a contest to donate to the Alagille Syndrome Alliance, a non-profit that supports research for a cure for this disease, and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which was kind enough to send us to Disney World last year. Basically, I've submitted a post to a new social bookmarking site, and the post that gets the most 5-star votes wins a cash prize.

So if you'd like to help, it would be greatly appreciated. Here's the link to my post - all you need to do is go to the site, register (just make up a username and password - no email address required), and then visit the post and rate it 5 stars. The rating bar is above the image in my post.

My goal is to get 500 5-star votes by next Tuesday (Dec. 16) at midnight EST, when the contest ends. If you can pass this along to anyone who might be willing to vote, it would be a great help.

Pimping of this post is also much appreciated!

Hopefully, you've never heard of Alagille's Syndrome before... but as you can guess, this is a very important thing for me. One day, I hope to see a cure for this disease... and perhaps this contest will help me do my part in facilitating a cure.

Thanks for your help! (And again, I'll get back to vegan recipes very soon!)