Pomegranate Cream Cheese Orange Salad

The star of the party. This is the dish that got the most raving from my guests at Lyanne’s party.

Lately I've grown not to like salads with mayonnaise dressings. Either it shows that I've grown up or I'm sick of it. Whichever way, it certainly isn't all that healthy when mayo is usually made with hydrogenated oils, and these are sources of trans-fat which are artery clogging and a main source of obesity, diabetes, cancer, infertility in women and liver problems. Mayo is not made with milk, haha. I used to think mayo is a form of dairy when I was a kid. Well, I'm not saying I want to diet and slim down, no no. But why eat something so bad for you while you can have better options in life. If I feel like having mayo, I think I'll still go back to my tomato cream. Choose a good oil when you make it, then it'll be much better for you. When I made that I only have corn oil in hand, and that is hydrogenated too, but since the amount is not as much as regular mayo, just keep one eye closed. Now, I have one bottle of grapeseed oil, which is far better. It's just how you choose your food.

This is the only dish that I remembered what and how much stuff I used to prepare it. But then again, what to put and how much to put in is up to you.

But when I planned for this salad, I gave it a few thoughts

Crunchy : Lettuce and croutons
Soft: Cheese and orange
Sweet: Pomegranate
Salty: Croutons and cheese
Tangy: Orange
Creamy feel: Cheese
Colour combination : Green, Pink, Orange, Yellow and White.

It was a nice combination, and I will do this again, if I have another party to do. Probably my housewarming party, but I do hope I can get pomies at that time of the year.

Mike’s aunt asked for this recipe, so I post this up for her reference.

You can actually use the dressing as your Chinese New Year Lou Sang dressing. Slice the lettuces instead of breaking them up, use parmesan instead of cream cheese, use mandarin oranges instead of Valencia (and skip the sugar), and the croutons… hmm… up to u to innovate with it so that it’ll be suitable for tossing with chopsticks.

Pomegranate Cream Cheese Orange Salad
Recipe Source: Wendyywy

2 heads of coral lettuce (I used Genting Garden brand)
1 large head of romaine lettuce (Genting Garden brand too)
3/4 cup pomegranate seeds (I used 2 Spanish pomies, Chinese pomies are pale and seeds are bigger)
125gm cream cheese (cut them when they are cold and firm)
2 valencia oranges (flesh only)
1 cup or more croutons (Recipe here)

1. Wash and drain both lettuces. Tear into small pieces and place in salad dish
2. Cut away skin from orange, including the white parts and remove wedges of flesh from the orange. Sprinkle orange wedges over lettuce. Squeeze leftover juice from the remains for the vinaigrette.
3. Cube cream cheese and sprinkle all over the lettuces. (a wet knife helps with the cutting)
4. Sprinkle pomegranate seeds over salad. Keep chilled until time of serving
5. Prepare vinaigrette.
6. When it’s time to serve, carefully drizzle vinaigrette evenly over salad and lastly top with crispy croutons. No need to toss.

Orange Vinaigrette
Juice from 1 valencia orange, plus extra juice from the leftovers after removing the flesh from the above 2 oranges
3 Tbsp light olive oil
¾ tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
Good dash of black pepper
Mix everything together and taste. If too sour, add more sugar. The dressing should be taste nicely salted (just like soups) and the sweetness nicely balanced with the tanginess of the orange juice.