Acai Berry & Pomegranate Salad Dressing

I had some leftover salad from last night, added chopped apple, 

1/3 cup cooked quinoa, and drizzled on the Acai & Pomegranate Salad Dressing.

     The day after Christmas and I can actually say I am feeling healthy. I enjoyed a few chocolates and a little holiday fare but nothing that made me feel over indulged. Since it was only Randy & I spending the holiday together there wasn't a big family feast to tempt me. Randy asked if I remembered what we did last Christmas and I couldn't remember. Wow! It was a significant event and I didn't remember. Thanks to his prompt I reflected back. Last December I had gallbladder surgery a week and half before Christmas. I still wasn't feeling 100% by Christmas day so it was nice that our friends invited us over to spend the day with them. What a difference between how I am feeling this year! The journey towards better health continues :-)

Left: Spiced Pomegranate Molasses  Right: Acai Berry-Pomegranate Syrup

The Spice Pomegranate Molasses recipe was posted in Pomegranate Pear Tart

     Today I am doing another kitchen experiment with making a syrup for the salad dressing. I had an apple-walnut salad last week and was thinking of making a pomegranate-citrus salad dressing. I wanted to save the spiced pomegranate molasses I have for another recipe idea. So I went to the grocery store to get more Pom juice and the store was out. Since everything is shipped here to Guam it is hard to know when and if it will be available on the next arrival. I've learned to just go with the flow, get creative and rethink my plans when the store is out of things. As I looked around for an alternative I saw the Zola Acai Juice with Pomegranate and thought that sounded like an interesting alternative.

     Back home I looked around the kitchen and decided to use some coconut sugar to make the Zola juice syrup. Coconut sugar is a natural sweetener, low on the glycemic index, filled with lots of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. It has a nice, mild brown sugar flavor which seems perfect for this syrup.

     For the syrup I brought the 12 oz. bottle of Zola Acai-Pomegranate juice to a boil in a small saucepan. As soon as it came  to a boil I reduced the heat to a slow simmer, added 3 T. coconut sugar and squeezed 1/4 of a lemon. It was about 1 T. lemon juice. Lemon zest would be a nice addition also. I let it simmer for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. At this point it was starting to thicken so I removed it from the heat. It was good syrup consistency. If I cooked it longer it would have gotten thicker like molasses which maybe I would like for another recipe.

The 12 oz. bottle of juice reduced down to half (6 oz. or 3/4 cup).

     Now that I have the syrup made and it has cooled down, I am ready to make the salad dressing.

Tip- make the syrup in advance, refrigerate, then use when you are ready to make the salad dressing.

Acai Berry & Pomegranate Salad Dressing
Makes about 1 cup
printable recipe

juice from one orange (1/4 cup)
3/4 cup Acai-Pomegranate syrup (recipe above)
3 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 T. balsamic vinegar
1/2 T. Dijon mustard
1/2 cup fresh mint, finely chopped
pinch of salt & pepper

Whisk it all together or shake in a jar. Store unused dressing in the refrigerator.

Note: If you don't have mint, use about 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley. Of course they are different flavors but both work nice in this dressing.