Quinoa Salad with Fresh Herbs and Pomegranate Seeds

A Tale of Two Salads!

The first salad is a winner! It has complex levels of flavours from the fresh bite of mint and cilantro to the small explosions of pomegranate sweetness. And each mouthful is a study in textual contrasts among soft, chewy, and crunch. Nothing about this salad is expected or traditional. Plus it’s pretty too. Yum, I love it!

The second salad is a loser! It has too many tastes and textures plus really annoying pomegranate seeds. This story belongs to the spouse who grew up in an upright English Canadian family where dinner was a roast, potatoes, and peas. Not surprisingly, he prefers food that comes without surprises.

two eaters…two salads…the same serving bowl

Sometimes, I contemplate two kitchens, but honestly, the spouse does put up with a lot of culinary experimentation and manages to remain good-humoured—well, most of the time.

Besides, wouldn’t life be boring if we were all the same?

Point Values for Commonly Used Seeds

Back in June, 2011, I started realizing that seeds could carve a deep hole in my daily WW points. I knew about the high fats in nuts, but I wasn’t sure about seeds. This was during the height of the chia seed craze, and they seemed to be in every recipe I looked at.

Research on chia seeds confirmed my worst suspicions: 2 tbsps. = 3 points (see note at bottom) because of the high quantity of fat in the seeds. True, chia seeds contain healthy fat but, unfortunately, WW doesn’t distinguish between good and bad fats when assigning point values. Clearly, I wasn’t going to be sprinkling chia, or any other, seeds around with happy abandon.

I wrote about the seed problem in what has turned out to be the 2nd most popular post on this blog, To Chia or Not to Chia: This is the Seed/Nut Question. I attribute part of this popularity to the fact that the WW Pocket Guide doesn’t include point information on seeds—nuts, yes; seeds, no.

But I hadn’t really delved into all the seeds or provided an easy basis for comparisons among the seeds. My remedy is a “Point Values of Commonly Used Seeds” chart which uses 1 tbsp. as the common quantity.

Carob-Covered Pomegranate Seeds

Today the stars aligned!  Truly.  First, this dessert is a delicious and richly satisfying mixture of sweet and tart.  Secondly, the recipe is gluten-, dairy-, and egg-free.  And, thirdly, I made it—just by chance—on  “National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day” (according to Foodimentary who keeps track of these things).  Yep, the moon was definitely in the seventh house.

Alas, however, it isn’t calorie-free, but we can’t have everything, can we?  On the other hand, it isn’t so rich that my diet “pocketbook” can’t afford a serving.  So now I too can eat something wonderfully sweet during the holidays and not feel deprived as everyone else guzzles down egg nog and hogs down cheesecake.  So there, world!