Rocket and Pomegranate Salad

I could just give you the recipe, but I’m just dying to whinge a little bit about my jogging career.  What a business it is, trying to get fit! The jogging group meets on Tuesday evenings at 6.30pm.  That just doesn’t suit me.  Last week I was full of good intentions but when it came time to leave the house I was in the middle of preparing the family dinner of twice-cooked salt and pepper chicken wings.  The enthusiasm waned and I thought how much more sensible it would be for me to stay indoors instead risking, seeing as it was pitch black already, tripping on an uneven footpath and face-planting into the concrete.

Toast the walnuts in a dry frying pan over medium heat

Toast the walnuts in a dry frying pan over medium heat

I did turn up for the Friday session though.  This time the trainer thought adding a few more flights of stairs would be enjoyable.  He was wrong as there was nothing enjoyable about it.  We ran around the perimeter of the zoo where there are lots of stairs to ‘enjoy’ and combined with this pleasure there were some rather unpleasant odours emitting from some animal breed and on top of that the sunshine was stinging and it was an unseasonably warm day of 26C (80F).  I was covered in sweat and my face glowed like a beacon.

Pomegranates are so pretty

Pomegranates are so pretty

After I sulked all the way home I realised I have but three weeks before I line up with thousands of others for the 10km race I way-back, decided to run.  And at the moment I can’t even run more than 6kms before needing medical assistance.  There’s so much work to be done.  So much so that I decided I would join the 8am Sunday training sessions.

The dressing is made with pomegranate molasses - a favourite ingredient of mine

The dressing is made with pomegranate molasses – a favourite ingredient of mine

On Saturday night I abstained from drinking, I went to bed early and set my alarm for the early rise.  I was five minutes early to our meeting place and was the first to arrive.  I waited in the cold in nothing more than a singlet top and I waited and waited and waited.  Fifteen minutes later I was still the only one there.  Long story short, nobody turned up; not even the trainer! Like I said before, what a business it is, trying to get fit.

Arugula or Rocket Salad

Arugula/Rocket Salad

Here is the recipe for the salad I promised quite a while ago.  This is the salad my sister, Millie, made for our Easter Sunday lunch.  She made it with feta cheese but I’ve made it with grilled haloumi – because I saw a lovely pumpkin and haloumi salad on Tania’s blog a few days ago and it made me crave haloumi!  The original recipe calls for shaved parmesan so there you go, you have a lot of options.  And thanks to all those who responded to my SOS on how best to extract those glistening pearls from a pomegranate.  The overwhelming consensus is that they need a decent spanking.  Cut the pomegranate in half and spank it with a wooden spoon.  All the pearls should obediently succumb and release into a well-positioned bowl.

The pearls of the pomegranate add beautiful colour

The pearls of the pomegranate add beautiful colour

5.0 from 7 reviews
Rocket and Pomegranate Salad
Author: 
Recipe type: Salad
Cuisine: Australian
Prep time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4
 
Rocket and Pomegranate Salad.
Ingredients
  • 2 large handfuls of rocket/arugula
  • small handful of toasted walnuts
  • 3-4 slices grilled haloumi, broken into bite-sized pieces
  • ½ a pomegranate, seeded
  • ¼ cup pomegranate molasses
  • juice of ½ a lemon
  • 2 tbspns honey
  • 2 tbspns red wine vinegar
  • ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
  1. Toss the salad ingredients together on a plate.
  2. To make the dressing: Combine the pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, honey, red wine vinegar and some seasoning and whisk to combine.
  3. While still whisking, slowly pour in olive oil.
  4. (You will have more salad dressing than you need and the remainder can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for your next salad!)
Made with grilled haloumi

Made with grilled haloumi

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Comments

  1. Poor you but you’re going to be SO fit and even more gorgeous than you are now. I have exercise envy, that’s for sure.

    While you run I’ll eat the salad. 🙂

  2. Oh Charlie – I am sorry to hear no one showed up bright and early Sunday morning – but I have to confess, I don’t think I would have either – now, if you had promised you were bringing this salad as a post run treat – I would have been there bright eyed at 7.45am!
    Thanks for the tip on spanking my pomegranates to release the seeds – I am trying that this afternoon for sure! Good luck training for that 10k

  3. I love the idea of adding grilled haloumi – it is such a lovely salad full of protein and colour that I would love to be the sort of person who eats this for dinner – just as I would love to be the type who goes on 10km runs – but then my desire to hunker down inside and eat soup on a dark evening overrules these other desires 🙂 I suspect I will save the salad for summer but I do want it soon so it is just a matter of me getting up my spanking mojo for the pomegranates.

  4. Do you know what my sister says about running? She dreads it before she does it, its painful whilst she is running and she hurts afterwards. You have to love my sister… If I had a bowl of this beautiful Rocket and pomegranate salad with grilled cheese waiting for me upon my return I would be the first to reach the finish line. The pomegranate is so pretty and it has that perfect little geometric design. Great photos too. Just pinned!

  5. Yes. Yes. This whole fitness thing is quite the business! I admire you because I’m not sure I could run to save my life? To play tennis? Yes maybe. I’ve done the unthinkable and joined a 30 AB challenge. By the end of the 30 days I’m somehow supposed to be able to do 125 situps, 200 crunches, 65 leg raises and 120 sec plank. Hmmmm…. I’m not sure about this. What a beautiful salad! Such nice colors. Bright and healthy.

    Good luck with the running!

  6. I start out enthusiastically about an exercise routine but never follow through, especially during the garden season, figured I am getting exercise gardening.

  7. Awww poor thing! I can’t believe no one showed up on Saturday! That is my favorite time to run.

    This salad is my kind of running fuel! Halloumi is one of my newfound favorite cheeses!

  8. I am in love with all things salad these days!! And this one is gorgeous! I still hate running…lol I don’t think I will ever love that! 😉 xo

  9. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more colorful salad. Now, to purchase a pomegranate for the first time…

  10. For god’s sakes it has to get cold there so I can feel better about being here. SERIOSUSLY JUST FOR A MONTH. Growing up it was NEVER warm on my birthday, and now it’s in the 20s? Ugh. That’s my whinge. 😉

    • Our birthdays are almost on the same day and yes, I’ve never had a warm birthday. I’ve always thought that just once, I’d love to celebrate my birthday in the northern hemisphere. But as for this year…I might just get my birthday wish and have a day of sunshine with mild to warm temperatures. I do wonder why it’s not warming up for you over there – we’re seriously not trying to hog the heat! xx

  11. I give you props for making the effort. 🙂

    I think I need to add halloumi to my cheese list cause, even if I don’t make this particular salad, a number of posts have brought this cheese to my attention. Pomegranate molasses is another item I’ve never used.

  12. This salad looks absolutely delicious, love the wonderful recipe! Pomegranates and rocket are the best 😀
    Fit, healthy and tasty!

    Cheers
    Choc Chip Uru

  13. Are you sure you had the day right Charlie? I think you should at least get brownie points for showing up- I hope you stopped for coffee and a croissant on the way home 🙂 Maybe you should train with Alfie? Trying to keep up with that little dynamo would certainly be a challenge. Or perhaps if your trainer took your group to the zoo after hours, he could arrange for them to release a tiger or two- now that would be motivation!! Xox

  14. I have exercise envy too… I have to ask, why are you doing it if it doesn’t fit in with your other commitments love?

  15. Turning up at 8am on a Sunday and not having anyone else do so – well, clearly you deserved a medal just for that. You’re definitely putting in huge effort to fitness Charlie!

    I love the look of this salad, and agree that pomegranates are beautiful. However, I clearly haven’t mastered the art of spanking them. My seeds never come out readily!

  16. I’ve been doing an 8 km walk through a local park for about a month now, I just can’t imaging doing it with a troup, I wouldn’t like that at all. I use an app on my iPhone called run keeper and it tracks my progress and records my walks. You can even use your last walk (or run) to try and do better. You can also friend people on it and walk or run against them.
    The salad looks amazing; im sorry I didn’t see you plea for the pomegranate, Martha Stewart suggests to seed them under water and that way you’ll never get squirted with their juice (I’m always wearing white for some reason)!

  17. I can’t believe no one else showed up! Go you for sticking to the training schedule. The salad looks yummy.

  18. Such a gorgeous salad! Pomegranate molasses sound wonderful. Ohhh, I would have been upset about being the only one to show up for a run! Probably more so because of missing a few evening cocktails 😉

  19. I can’t believe that the trainer didn’t even turn up! What sort of motivation is that? 😮 And a friend of mine tripped on a sticking up piece of concrete and hurt herself so that’s a real possibility!

  20. I can’t believe no one else turned up that’s terrible! Did you do the run anyway just to make it worth the while getting up early? I’m sure you’ll do the 10kms no bother at all on the day.

  21. I can’t run top say my life. Good on you Charlie. Love the salad and the shout out. I can imagine how nice that tasted with pomegranate and haloumi! x

  22. That’s shocking that nobody turned up after you had made such a monumental effort. I admire your tenacity. By the way, nice photos.

  23. You are much braver than me – the thought of running anywhere makes me feel very tired. This is a fabulous salad, and pomegranates are very pretty indeed!

  24. I can’t believe no one showed up! I hope you went home via a bakery and bought yourself some croissants as a reward for getting out of bed so early on a Sunday.

  25. hahaha, oh dear, you are in for a long and hard time ahead if the complaining is in 5th gear already. I feel for ya Charlie, also think you are legend getting fit, even though everything in you says NO!
    Gawd this salad looks amazing. I adore pomegranate. So yummy!

  26. I wish, I could get back into an exercise routine but I am such a slouch, these days. I think, for the time, I will just read about your adventures or lack of (when no one shows up) and pretend I did it too.

    On the other hand, the salad, I want to make.

  27. I don’t run any more (my knees won’t take it) but when I did, it was one of those love/hate things. I loved having done the run. But while I was doing it? Meh. Good luck with the training. I’ll be joining Maureen and eating this while you’re out there slaving away!

  28. Great motivation, Charlie! Keep it up. I love salads prepared this way…As the say, health is wealth!

    Julie
    Gourmet Getaways

  29. Oh Charlie, this is so frustrating!!! Nobody showed up… I can imagine how you feel poor thing.Exercise is hard … really hard, but I am sure the end is bright:) – or that’s what I keep telling myself every time. Your salad is awesome in fact I’ve just purchased my first pomegranate molasses bottle and I am wondering how to use it.

  30. It will be worth it, you will see. And that salad will only help you in the process, and us. Good Luck Charlie!

  31. Such a beautiful salad! And, oh, I can relate to the trials and tribulations of trying to get fit — I’m trying to get into a routine of weight training at the gym, hoping that one of these days I’m going to just bound out of bed in the mornings and head straight there for the sheer love of it. That’s not quite how it’s going at the moment, lol.

  32. Gorgeous Salad.
    Gorgeous You! ))) xx

  33. See, this is why I run for fun and when I want to and on my own. Sorry, that doesn’t make you feel any better Charlie.
    What a mouth watering salad though – scrumptious!
    Have a wonderful day and just think, that 10km run will be over soon.
    🙂 Mandy xo

  34. It’s an absolute torrential downpour here this morning, I’ve forsaken the gym for the second day in a row. To exercise, one must wait for the perfect weather?? But one can always make a beautiful salad, relax and read:D Good luck with your training, I feel rather guilty and lazy now;) but not enough to do anything about it!! xx

  35. No trainer turn up is a bit of a frowned upon no no surely?
    I’m with Intolerant Chef, train with Alfie…keeping up with young boys is exhausting!

  36. Love this!! Will have to try it… hmm wonder if I have time before the weekend! x

  37. I’d be rather upset if my trainer didn’t even show up! That’s really not very encouraging. You are fierce to be this patient and to make such an effort. I am certain it will pay off, and I’m envious, up to the point where it would require me to do a whole lot more to be in shape for such a run! 🙂 I will, however, be making this wonderful salad. Thank you for the great recipe. I’ve been making your blueberry muffins lately and my family loves them!

  38. I hear you sister! I get up two to three times a week at 5:45 to run before getting to the office and it is hell sometimes, especially in the winter. But it is better than going in the evenings to me, when I am exhausted after a long day. So, why didn’t anyone show up? Was it the wrong day or did they just forget to tell you (the trainer at least) that it wouldn’t be happening… what a bummer.

  39. I’ve had this saved and have been meaning to look at it. Finally got around to and I love this salad. The dressing sounds spectacular and so full of flavor. I look forward to trying it plus it’s so festive looking. Thanks for sharing it.

  40. A georgous jewel of a fine salad! I love the grilled halloumi in here too!

    Yum yum Yummm! 🙂

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