No matter what part of the country you are in, spring is making its arrival! This salad takes less than 10 minutes to make and the flavors are perfectly light and simple for springtime. A?Spring Pomegranate Brown Rice Kale Salad is the perfect addition to any spring meal.
This blog post is sponsored by Veetee Foods. All opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the brands that support A Joyfully Mad Kitchen.
I've mentioned before my need for quick side dishes. If you have young kids, you can relate to the hour before bedtime (also known as the hour you have to cook) as being a bit chaotic. One of my best friends from middle school was in town this past week and I felt myself "watching" our before bed hour as a fly on the wall and being shocked at the chaotic nature of it. We have it down to a science now, so our quick dinner and bath time routine doesn't phase me until someone else is in the middle of it.
So with all of that being said, quick but flavorful meals are a must around here. I love throwing in a quick salad recipe, but since I am a bit picky about lettuce types, I usually opt for spinach salads. In collaboration with Veetee Foods?this month, I had the idea for making a quick spring salad using their brown rice and quinoa blend.
I just love the texture of quinoa added to a salad and the fact that I didn't have to cook the quinoa and brown rice blend for more than a few minutes is a huge plus for me.
In fact, this entire salad only took about 10 minutes, the only "cooking" was saut?ing the onions and all that had to be prepped was chopping up a half an onion. Seriously SO simple, but the flavor was so good.
I usually opt for some kind of dressing, even if it's just a light oil and vinegar blend, but for this salad, I kept it dry so the only dressing/liquid is a splash of olive oil from saut?ing onions. I think that's what makes this salad so light and refreshing because it's simply greens and a few add ins.
This citrus berry spinach salad is loaded with ingredients like pistachios, cranberries, goat cheese, oranges and blackberries and it's perfect for a summer salad!
Before this, I hadn't ever tried pomegranate before, but I wanted to have a pop of color and unique flavor combination for this salad. After passing a package of pomegranate arils in the grocery store, I decided it would be worth a shot. The sweetness is just enough to compliment the earthy flavor?from the kale.
Some people don't like to eat the actual seed in the pomegranate, but I think it's a necessity for this salad. It balances out the softer textures with a slight crunch of the seed. While I was cooking the rest of dinner, I left the salad in the frying pan and put the lid on it, which softened the pomegranate arils just enough.
If you need an easy, flavorful side dish for the chaos at dinner time, this?Spring Pomegranate Brown Rice Kale Salad is perfect for you!
Spring Pomegranate Brown Rice Kale Salad
Freshen up your springtime meals with this pomegranate kale salad.
Ingredients
- 5 ounces kale, stalks removed and torn/cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 package of Veetee Quinoa and Brown Rice (or about 1 cup of cooked quinoa/brown rice)
- ½ cup pomegranate arils
- ½ onion, finely diced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
- Dice onion and saut? on frying pan until translucent
- Add kale to frying pay and let wilt
- Add rice to pan, breaking up clumps and stirring into kale and onion mix
- Add pomegranate arils and cover for 5-10 minutes on low heat
- Serve immediately
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 148Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 11mgCarbohydrates: 18gFiber: 3gSugar: 4gProtein: 3g
What are some of your quick dinner meal ideas?
Meghan @ Cake 'n Knife says
I absolutely love the colors in this salad! So bright and flavorful!
Madison Wetherill says
Thank you!! We really loved it too. Now to figure out how many other ways I can use pomegranate ๐