Tropical Salad

Since its Ramadan, Fox started airing a lot of Master Chef Australia episodes as well as other cooking TV shows (that are no where near as good). I remember one day I was too tired to do anything so I just laid down onto the sofa and flicked through the channels. Nothing interesting was on. But then I saw Master Chef and it was the only decent-looking thing among the rest of the TV crap. 

I really enjoyed that episode I saw. It was one of the firsts of that season. Ever since I have been watching it everyday. I would be upset if I missed out on an episode or if I person I was rooting for left the show. 

The salad I present today is inspired from Vern one of the contestants of Master Chef, whom sadly was eliminated. What I really like about him is that he is never afraid of taking risks and cooking something un-expected. Sometimes it would work and other times it wont, but that is the beauty of it. Once you whip up that delicious peculiar dish it captures people and you yourself have made something that others wouldn't think of. It makes you proud and happy.

Here is how this salad was created: I was hungry, I ate a lot of junk food so I wanted to eat something healthy- preferably some greens because I didn't have any for futoor. I only had a little lettuce left and I didn't want to have tomatoes in my salad. I don't know why I thought the orange would make a great companion for the lettuce and that's how it started. The rest of the ingredients I chose to be complementary to the orange. As well as, I wanted to incorporate different textures and flavors to balance the dish (terms I have heard multiple times on the show, as it what they look for to make a dish perfect). You get the sweetness of the orange, the crunchy-saltiness of the nut, the creaminess of the cheese and the balancing element: the lettuce along with the sour/sweet easy-to-make dressing. 

I know the picture quality is bad and its dark, but I promise it looked nicer. I didn't have time to take proper pictures because my sister wanted to try it before heading out and I was hungry.

Ingredients:

-Lettuce 

-Orange

-Nut: I don't know what its called, its like a mini almond that tastes salty with tinges of sweet. Let me know what its called, you can use any type of nut you have

-Kiri cheese

Dressing:

-Thick pomegranate extract

-Balsamic vinegar 

-Olive oil

Its very simple :-) For 1 table spoon of pomegranate extract you add 2 table spoons of balsamic vinegar and 2 table spoons of olive oil. Just add as much as you require but make sure the olive oil and balsamic vinegar is double the amount of pomegranate extract. Also add a dash of water so that it would make it easier for the dressing to be poured. If you don't like it very sour add more olive oil and less vinegar.

and Voila!

I will sure be making this salad more often. I look forward to creating more salads using other fruits and less usual components than what I would typically use. 

Until next time,

Alya