Nigella's three seasonal salads

Christmas salad
It is predominantly the colour that makes me think of this as a Christmas salad. But then, the starring role played by the Christmas fruit—the pomegranate—would surely be justification enough. This is the salad I bring out time and time again at Christmastime, either to bring a little joy and colour to a quickly gathered together tableful of leftovers, as a side dish when the food really needs no more than a light accompaniment, or even as a starter, so people have something to pick at as I do a little last minute this-or-that.

At this time of year, given my pomegranate-predilection, my fridge is full of those packets of all-done-for-you seeds, and the amount here represents half what I'd expect to find in a packet. If you're going for the whole fruit, use the seeds from a whole pomegranate.

If the salad is a starter, I tend to throw in the red peppers; as a simple side dish it is elegant perfection without.

Ingredients

• 2 heads red chicory
• 1 large head radicchio or tardivo
• 2 red peppers (optional)
• seeds from 1 pomegranate, or 75g pomegranate seeds from a tub/packet

• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon honey
• juice of 1 clementine/satsuma
• 1 teaspoon lime juice
• pinch of salt
• 3 x 15ml tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions
1 Tear the chicory and radicchio or tardivo into pieces into a salad bowl.

2 If you are using the red peppers, deseed them and cut into 2cm strips, and add to the salad.

3 Sprinkle some of the pomegranate seeds over, then whisk together the dressing ingredients to pour over the salad.

4 Toss everything together, then do a final sprinkling of pomegranate seeds over the top before serving.

Makes approximately 6 servings.

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Excerpted from Nigella Christmas: Food, Family, Friends, Festivities with permission by Knopf Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.