Hey, friends, this is @nana2018
This winter persimmon salad brings colours of the rainbow to your plate. Super delicious and healthy, with seasonal produce, try this one out when persimmons are in season.
Appearance Of A New Fruit
While I’ve known of persimmons for a while, I got a taste of this fruit only last month. My neighbours are extremely resourceful people. One of them got the contact of a farmer in Himachal who was willing to send us boxes of locally grown organic persimmons and kiwi fruit. A whole bunch of us eagerly signed up to meet the minimum requirement for a consignment.
There was a 10 day wait until the fruits reached our doorstep.
The kiwis were just about half the size of the popular brands you see in the supermarket. Literally one bite sized and the cutest kiwis I have ever seen. Not to mention, the sweetest, juiciest kiwis I had ever sunk my teeth into. It required extreme self control not to devour the entire lot of 2 dozen in one go. It did help that they were ripening gradually and I could only eat what was ripe and ready. Thank you, Mother Nature
Over to the persimmons…these fruits seemed extremely stubborn to graduate to a ripe state. It almost felt like they were happy hibernating in their raw and firm state, unwilling to succumb to my growing temptation to take a bite. I had never tasted a persimmon so I was literally dying to find out how it tastes like.
2 weeks went by and one persimmon finally showed signs of ripening. The flesh seemed to yield to pressure just a bit and it was a hallelujah moment for me. I went after it with a knife and chopping board.
You need to be a true foodie or a food blogger to understand the excitement of this moment.
I sliced up the persimmon and immediately popped a slice into my mouth. I liked it, but did not love it. It was one of those cloying sweet tastes without a tinge of tartness to balance it out. When I showed the fruit to my son, he said, ‘Ugh! This one has the colour of a papaya. I cannot taste it!”. In case it wasn’t evident, he abhors papayas
Persimmon wasn’t a fruit that made me want to gobble it down by the sack, like I can do with oranges or kiwis. So I decided to put them to use in recipes. It went into my morning oatmeal (easily a replacement for honey), midmorning snack with yogurt and a few salads too.
This winter persimmon salad was one of my favourites. Use the red carrots that are very much in season in India, along with a few greens from my kitchen garden, and this salad is rainbow on your plate. #eattherainbow goals yo!
To make this a vegan winter persimmon salad, by all means omit the blue cheese. But for me, the cheese is the highlight of this salad dominated by sweet flavours. The salty funky taste rounds off the flavours in this salad superbly.
INGREDIENTS
1 persimmon
1 apple
8-10 dino kale leaves
1 small bunch rocket leaves
1 orange carrot
1 red carrot
50 grams blue cheese
For dressing
1.5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp finely grated ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp sesame seeds
INSTRUCTIONS
- Cut the persimmon into quarters and then slice into 1 cm thick slices, discarding the core and seeds if any.
- Cut the apple similarly. Toss apple pieces in 1 tsp lemon juice and keep aside.
- Wash and dry the leaves on cotton towels or in a salad spinner. Chop into bite sized pieces and keep aside.
- Scrub and peel the carrots. Using a julienne grater or spiraliser.
- Combine the prepped ingredients in a bowl.
- Whisk the ingredients for the dressing in a small bowl until thick and creamy. Pour over the salad.
- Toast the sesame seeds in a small pan on high heat until they start popping. Top the salad with the toasted seeds.
- Scatter crumbled blue cheese over the salad.
RECIPE NOTES
- No rocket or kale? Use any green leafy vegetables that you can find and that are in season.
- Try this recipe using mangoes instead of persimmons
- You can also use spiralised white radish in addition to the carrots
- You can buy a very handy julienne peeler to make quick work of spiralizing vegetables like carrot and radish. In India, Big Bazaar stocks these peelers and they are <Rs.100
by https://www.saffrontrail.com/winter-persimmon-salad-kale/
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