Baby Salad Greens with Persimmons and Lemon Poppy Seed Dressing

With fall here, I love to use persimmons as a surprising touch in salads.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

• 4 to 6 cups washed baby salad greens
• 1 ripe Japanese persimmon

Salad Dressing

• 1/8 cup of lemon juice
• 1/8 to 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil or a light vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tablespoon poppy seeds
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon powdered ginger (optional)

Tools:

Large bowl, small bowl, whisk, cutting board, knife

Instructions

1. Remove the persimmon’s stem or leaves either by cutting them at the base or by pulling them off. I usually just pull them off. If you don’t want to eat the tough persimmon skin, you can peel the persimmon. (I don’t peel it.) Slice the persimmon into 1/4 inch slices, then cut the slices into bite sized pieces. Since I leave the skin on, I don’t put the first or last slices into the salad. (I just eat them. 😊
2. For the salad dressing
   1. In the small bowl, whisk the lemon juice, white balsamic vinegar, and oil together until the juice and vinegar have combined with the oil.
   2. Whisk in the poppy seeds, ginger, salt and pepper
3. Put the baby salad greens into the large bowl and add the cut persimmon slices.
4. Spoon the dressing over the salad and toss. Since the persimmon slices like to sink down to the bottom of the bowl, I like to find several slices and put them on top.

Notes:

I was using my mortar and pestle to grind peppercorns for another dish and to prevent having another dish to wash, I made the salad dressing in my mortar and pestle.

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