I follow a chef’s videos on Instagram named John Gregory-Smith. I didn’t even know he was a chef – I just thought he was a guy who loves cooking. It turns out that he’s written 7 cookbooks! I’d buy one but I recently purchased similar cookbooks so I thought I’d wait a bit. We definitely love similar cuisines.
One day I watched him make a salad with cherry tomatoes, cherries, pomegranate seeds, mozzarella, a lemon dressing that included pomegranate molasses, and I was in love. With the salad. So I searched.
I found his recipe for this salad on Ocado.com.
From the chef: “There is something so lush about the sweet tang of a juicy cherry and during the summer months, I can devour them in vast quantities, working at such pace I get stained fingers and what looks like badly applied lippie. They also work beautifully in a salad. That big flavour pops out when paired with tomatoes, basil, pomegranate and mozzarella. It’s delish as a light lunch or perfect as a BBQ side.”
We are a bit on the back side of cherry season where I live but I walked into Whole Foods yesterday and there they were!
Cherry Salad
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
½ lemon, juiced
1 pinch salt
500g (a good pound) ripe cherries, halved and pitted
200g (7 ounces) mixed cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped
70g (2.5 ounces) pomegranate seeds
15g basil leaves, roughly chopped
200g (7 ounces) fresh mozzarella (I used burrata)
Pour the oil, pomegranate molasses and lemon juice into a small bowl, add a pinch of salt and whisk until combined.
Tip the cherries, tomatoes, most of the pomegranate seeds and most of the basil into a serving dish, pour over the dressing and mix well.
Tear over the mozzarella and scatter with the remaining pomegranate seeds and basil to serve.
Because my cherries were so sweet, the pomegranate molasses was a little redundant. I’d prefer a lemon dressing made with a Kalamata olive oil.
I could seriously see goat cheese in this salad. And, when I tested out the salad, I added avocado and a little salt. Excellent combination.
I’m not really sure what Ocado is, although Nigella Lawson also promotes the site. It seems to be about groceries, plus recipes are included, and it’s tied in to Marks and Spencer in the UK.