Onion Salad with pomegranate and cilantro

The pomegranate seeds fooled him.

“It’s dessert,” he said. “I’ll eat it last.”

It’s onions,” I said. “Onion salad, try it now.”

He waited.

He ate onion salad for dessert. I like it with rice. As a side for dumplings or grilled shrimp. Not dessert.

Salting the onions and allowing them to sweat it out softens their bite. The longer you let them sit with the salt before rinsing the saltier the final salad will be but even after an hour ( i got distracted) once I added the other ingredients the salt level was just right.

Onions are cheap, onions are good for you.  In the words of the great Julia Child-  “It’s hard to imagine civilization without onions.”

Just don’t be like him. Eat this with the meal. An accompaniment, an aside.  I like it with cilantro in the winter and a bit of mint in the summer. Whatever the season the pomegranate is that little something, that pop of color, the crunch of tangy sweet that brings the whole onion salad together into something more interesting than its parts.

There are a lot of how to videos out there about extracting the seeds from a pomegranate. I like this one from BBC GoodFood. And bonus for us on this side of the pond, in England they say pom-ee-gran-at, which is oddly charming.

Onion Salad with pomegranate

a simple and delicious side. perfect with mediterranean or asian dishes or just plain rice.

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Prep Time 5 mins

resting time 15 mins

Course Gluten free, Salad

Cuisine Vegetarian

Servings 4 people, as a side

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 medium onion- white or red sliced into slivers
• 1 teaspoon diamond kosher salt
• 1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
• scant 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• pinch of chile flakes or to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro coriander
• 1/4 cup fresh pomegranate seeds

Instructions

 

• toss sliced onion with salt place in a colander and allow the salt to draw out the juices (15 -30 minutes)
• rinse the onions with cold water and squeeze out any excess moisture
• in a medium bowl, whisk together the rice vinegar, sugar, and chile flakes
• toss onion with vinegar mixture and then add the chopped cilantro, lightly tossing to combine
• top with pomegranate seeds and serve
• will keep for several days covered in the fridge

Notes

salting the onions softens their bite

Tried this recipe?Mention @recipefiction or tag #recipefiction!

if you like pomegranates (and onions) as much as I do here are a few more of my favorite recipes

vegan chickpea salad with roasted onion and dill cream

or this pomegranate mint mocktail from last years january resolutions

or with pomegranate with prosecco if you prefer cock to mock