Tomato and Walnut Salad with Pomegranate Molasses
This beautiful salad from Angie Brenner and Joy Stocke is a mouth-watering oasis that I could eat anytime. You can swap the pomegranate molasses for the intensity of aged balsamic vinegar, and make this salad twice this week—it’s that good. Find this and other recipes in their book Tree of Life: Turkish Home Cooking.
“The walnut tree and its luscious, oil-rich fruit can be traced back to Mesopotamia as early as 2000 BCE. Today, Turkey is among the world’s top producers of both tomatoes and walnuts. Turkish cooks have long understood that pairing sweet yet acidic tomatoes with buttery walnuts make a delicious marriage of cultures. This salad works with any fresh tomatoes in season, but it’s more decorative with a mix of heirloom tomatoes in different sizes, hues, and flavors.”
Serves 4 – 6
Ingredients
½ cup coarsely chopped walnuts
3 fresh medium red tomatoes (or 1 cup cherry tomatoes)
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
¼ cup olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
½ cup coarsely chopped, flat-leaf parsley
Fresh black pepper
Directions
- Put the walnuts in a single layer in a medium-sized skillet over moderate heat. Stir the nuts continuously for 2 to 3 minutes until the nuts become fragrant and a rich golden-brown. Set the nuts aside to cool.
- Cut the tomatoes into bite-sized pieces, and place them in a non-reactive* serving bowl. If there is any tomato juice left on the cutting board, add the juice to the bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the pomegranate molasses, olive oil, salt and pepper.
- Add the walnuts and parsley to the tomatoes and gently fold to combine. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and gently fold again.
- Finish with a few grinds of fresh black pepper.
*Acidic foods like tomatoes, lemon juice, and vinegar, should not be cooked in reactive cookware. Aluminum, copper, iron, and non-stainless steel are reactive cookware.
This goes great with the Anatolian Kitchen’s Marinated Shrimp With Orange Zest and Nigella Seeds.
See our Orange and Red Onion Salad recipe, as well as other recipes Angie and Joy taught us while at La Cocina Que Canta cooking school.
