A crave-worthy salad made with 5 simple ingredients! This 5 Ingredient Christmas Salad is perfect for the holiday season (including potlucks!).
This is my favourite simple green salad for the holidays, a 5 ingredient Christmas Salad. 5 simple, yet profoundly delicious ingredients come together to form a very festive side dish that will rock any dinner table or potluck. It’s refreshing and a relief amongst a season of indulgences.
My mother-in-law introduced me to the base of the salad a few years ago. Basically leafy lettuce greens and pomegranate seeds. She likes to use a more involved vinaigrette where as I take the easy way out (aka how to maximize flavours without too many ingredients or effort). The dressing for my version includes shallots (more on them later), olive oil, and white wine vinegar (although red wine vinegar also works. I change them on a whim).
What’s a shallot? I like to think of it as the love child of an onion and garlic. Shaped sort of like an onion with rings and a pale purple colour, but has a less harsh flavour than onion and more like … you guessed it, garlic. It’s closest relatives are leeks, garlic and chives. You’ve probably seen them deep fried at a Southeast Asian eatery. They are my go to for vinaigrettes and I always have them in my crisper drawer. If you’re local, they’re always found at Kin’s Farm Market in a small bag (not affiliated, just giving a head’s up).
My kids like this salad (it’s covered in pomegranate seeds, what’s not to like?). But they LOVE this dressing, one will often ask to have the dressing after all the salad is gone. I usually always have a jar of this dressing in the fridge for our salads. I adapted the recipe from this vinaigrette these Spicy Greens (don’t look at a single photo! They’re terrible) as the years have gone by. Sticking with the basic bold flavours we love to top our salads.
Pomegranates and taking out the seeds freak you out? Here’s a great one minute video to ease you into the world of gorgeous, healthy, and crazy good pomegranates.
Other kid-friendly salads:
How to build a kid-friendly salad
Kale Caesar Salad (make sure the kale is shredded and let the dressing sit on the kale)
A crave-worthy salad made with 5 simple ingredients! This 5 Ingredient Christmas Salad is perfect for the holiday season (including potlucks!).
- 1 head bibb, butter, or green leaf lettuce*, ripped into bite sized pieces
- 1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
- 1 small shallot, finely chopped or minced French or purple
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup white wine vinegar** red wine vinegar will also work
- salt and pepper to taste
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Place shallot, olive oil, vinegar, and salt and pepper in a jar or container and shake until well blended.
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Place lettuce in a bowl and top with pomegranate seeds.
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Toss salad with some vinaigrette*** immediately before serving.
* living lettuce heads are particularly tasty in this recipe, but green leaf lettuce will do in a pinch.
** this dressing is on the acidic side of life. Taste the dressing before serving and top up with olive oil there's too much tang for you. I'd recommend adding a tablespoon at a time and resampling.
*** there will be some vinaigrette leftover. Perfect for salads all week!
Enjoy! xo
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