salad with pomegranate seeds, grapes and kale.

Reboot your salad with fresh ingredients like kale, pomegranate seeds and grapes. (Photo: Jerry James Stone)

Kale fruit salad

Sometimes, mixing fruits and vegetables goes a long way toward upgrading your salad.

By Jerry James Stone

Yield: Serves 2-4

Prep time: 10 minutes

Salads are great. Wonderful, even. I love them in all forms. I especially love the combination of fruit and veggies in a salad.

I remember the first time I served fruit this way. This was, of course, before the Internet or Instagram. I had soaked strawberries in balsamic vinegar and served them in a spinach salad. My guests first thought I was crazy, then a genius.

This salad is part summer and part fall. The fruit gives it a brightness and lightness that is perfect for those of us still suffering from warm weather. But this salad is hearty and filling.

Ingredients

1 pound red seedless grapes
1 small cucumber, peeled and sliced
1 ounce kale
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
Lemon
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Before I begin, fresh pomegranates are starting to pop up in the store and farmers market. You can of course purchased the prepared seeds, but seeding one yourself is quite easy, and kinda fun! Check out this video on how to seed a pomegranate.

Seeding a pomegranate yourself is easy and makes for better results. (Photo: Subbotina Anna/Shutterstock)

Take the kale and chop it up. I usually remove the stems but, honestly, it seems to work well in this salad, so I left them in. You can see how to store kale here, in case you bought too much.

Add the chopped kale, grapes and cucumber to a large mixing bowl. Drizzle about a teaspoon of olive oil over the top and mix, until all ingredients are coated. Slice the lemon and squeeze out just a few drops of juice. Toss the salad again.

Grapes in salad? It's surprisingly appropriate. (Photo: Jerry James Stone)