Pomegranate and Feta Tabbouleh Style Salad

Maddy and I joined the crowd at Sixth and I earlier this week to see Yottam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, authors of the cookbooks Jerusalem and Ottolenghi, and co-owners of the Ottolenghi shops in London.  This was a stop on their book tour sponsored by Politics and Prose.  They've just released the American version of Ottolenghi (which was originally released in the UK), although it was actually their first book and predates even Ottolenghi's own book Plenty, which is a compilation of vegetarian recipes culled from his column for the Guardian newspaper.

I wrote about them here, and included a link to the recipe for their fabulous beet puree from Jerusalem.

And so, continuing on my Middle-Eastern kick, I recently prepared this feta and pomegranate "tabbouleh" salad. I've been making this for several years and pulled it off of a sweet, small-ish blog called What's for Lunch, Dot.  I haven't adapted it as it's great as is, and recommend that you give it a try right now while pomegranates are in the stores.

I seed the pomegranate by breaking it apart in a bowl of water in the sink, and pulling out the seeds or arils from each section into the water.  Once you've emptied the pomegranate of its arils, you'll be left with just the skin and some pith to compost or otherwise dispose of.  The arils themselves will sink to the bottom of the water filled bowl and the stray bits of yellow pith will float so you can discard them.  I  then pick through and get rid of the little white arils keeping only the wine red, plump ones.

Also, to my family's taste, I cut back a little on the parsley and use a milder feta - one that is not too, too strong or salty.   Those marked "Israeli" feta often fit the bill if you'd like to do the same.