Spinach Salad with Pomegranate Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

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This Spinach Salad topped with sautéed red onions and pine nuts, and dressed with a Pomegranate Balsamic Vinaigrette is the perfect combination of tart and sweet. If you’re looking for a simple salad with big flavors for your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner menu, try this recipe!

Years ago, I used to make a delicious spinach salad with an apple juice and balsamic vinegar dressing. I found the recipe in a cooking magazine and saved it in a file on my computer. 

Then about five or six years ago, my son took apart the computer. It was an older computer that we didn’t use much anymore (with the exception of the recipes). He wanted to see if he could put it back together again. He couldn’t. 

Goodbye recipes. 

On a positive note, that little experiment started a real interest in tinkering with computers, and since then my boys have built several computers from parts together, and they do fix things from time to time on our older computers. 

But the recipes I had saved were gone. I was thinking about how good that salad was not too long ago and decided to try to re-create it. I never have apple juice in the house anymore though…the kids are older, and we just don’t drink it anymore. But I do usually have pomegranate juice. So I decided to play around with that. 

The result was wonderful! 

Spinach Salad with Pomegranate Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

This spinach salad is very easy to make. Cut 2 red onions into rings, and sauté in a little bit of olive oil until soft. While you’re doing that, toast your pine nuts on a piece of tin foil. Add both to your spinach. 

For the dressing, you’re going to combine your pomegranate juice to your balsamic vinegar, then heat it on the stove until it reduces by a quarter to half…exactness is not a big deal here. Remove from heat and whisk in the olive oil and honey. Give it a few minutes to cool, and then go ahead and dress your salad.

I like to use honey as a sweetener, but if you’re vegan, you’ll want to substitute another sweetener.

You probably will have a bit of extra dressing you can use for another day. I store mine in Ball jars with plastic lids. We make homemade salad dressing all the time, so these come in quite handy for me. 

This spinach salad will complement most dinner menus, but it’s also elegant enough for a holiday meal as well…perhaps the perfect start for your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner?

Are you hungry yet? 

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Spinach Salad with Pomegranate Balsamic VInaigrette

Yield: 4

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

This Spinach Salad topped with sautéed red onions and pine nuts, and dressed with a Pomegranate Balsamic Vinaigrette is the perfect combination of tart and sweet. If you're looking for a simple salad with big flavors for your Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner menu, try this!

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Ingredients

Salad

• 1 5 oz package baby spinach
• 1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 2 red onions, cut into rings
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

Dressing

• 1/4 cup pomegranate juice
• 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Salad

2. Cut red onions into rings. Sauté in olive oil until softened.
3. Toast pine nuts.
4. Add red onions and pine nuts with spinach.

Dressing

2. Combine balsamic vinegar and pomegranate juice. Bring to a boil, then simmer over low until reduced by a quarter or a half (no need to be exact).
3. Remove balsamic vinegar and pomegranate juice mixture from heat, and whisk in 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, and 2 teaspoons of honey. Allow to cool slightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Drizzle over spinach salad.