To escape those winter blues, try seeing red ... in a salad
Pomegranate adds a nice touch to this lunch.
The winter-morning kitchen is quiet except for the soft scuff of my slippers as I step to the chilly back hall and fetch a white, oxford shirt from its hook beside the aprons and the stockpot.
It’s a man-sized washable, bleachable shield against messy tasks, such as seeding a pomegranate.
Before reading the news of the day (or maybe because of it) the task of freeing pomegranate seeds is pleasingly meditative. Score the skin and break away the sections beneath the surface of water in a bowl to avoid a CSIworthy spray on the white backsplash tile.
My fingers working underwater, loosening the thin tissue that separates crimson chambers, make vaguely aquarium-like sounds; the occasional seed plops like a fish surfacing. Nutritionists say the ruby fruit possesses powerful polyphenols that tame inflammation. I’d add that the relaxing task of seeding also serves as a tonic.
Picking up already-seeded poms is something I can’t bring myself
to do. I like sorting through the mound of globes in the produce aisle, hefting candidates for the heaviest fruit. They come home in grocery bags during the drab season, when the landscape suffers from color deficit, a dun palette highlighted only by blue jays, holly berries and the red feathers of cardinals and their more subtly tinged friends.
Red is not a color I wear — in clothing, lipstick or nail polish. But in this month, when early garden blooms are still hibernating inside bulbs, I’m happy for red, as if, like paper hearts cascading across shop windows, it’s a harbinger of brighter days.
My mother liked to make cherry pie on Washington’s Birthday, a sweet honor based on the I-cannot-tella-lie fable. But maybe her baking tradition was done more out of a late February need for color when she was tired of bark brown.
The visual appeal may explain why it’s one of the oldest cultivated fruits and a symbol in Grenada, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
In my own kitchen, it’s simply a bright spot in the day, in a season when we’re hungry for color.
CHICKPEA AND POMEGRANATE SALAD
This bright and easy salad makes a nice lunch, with color and crunch.
It’s cost-effective to buy a whole pomegranate and harvest its seeds, instead of buying the seeds separately. We like to cut the fruit horizontally in half, and, working with one half at a time, hold it in hand cut side down over a bowl of water in the sink. Use a wooden spoon to whack the skin hard enough that you can feel the seeds falling out, through your fingers and into the water. (Any white pith that also falls will float to the top, to be easily discarded.)
The dressing can be refrigerated for up to 2 days in advance. The salad can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.
1 cup plain, instant
couscous
1 cup boiling water
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground
black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 to 3 tablespoons
pomegranate molasses 3 tablespoons fresh lemon
juice (from 1 lemon) 3 tablespoons extra-virgin
olive oil
One 14-ounce can no-saltadded chickpeas (about 1 3/4 cups), drained and rinsed
1 cup pomegranate seeds (arils; from 1 fresh pomegranate)
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
Combine the couscous, boiling water and 1/4 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper in a large bowl. Stir and cover tightly with plastic wrap; let sit for 10 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed. Uncover and fluff with a fork.
Meanwhile, whisk together the garlic, pomegranate molasses (to taste), lemon juice and oil in a liquid measuring cup to form an emulsified dressing.
When ready to serve, add the chickpeas, pomegranate seeds, mint, parsley and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper to the couscous, then pour the dressing over and toss to incorporate. Serves 4 to 6. Adapted from the Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe in Arlington, Virginia.
Per serving (based on 6): 310 calories, 10 g protein, 53 g carbohydrates, 9 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 100 mg sodium, 7 g dietary fiber, 10 g sugar