pomegranate wild rice salad

i was inspired to make this salad from a tasty video on facebook. i save several of those tutorials and probably end up making about 20-30% of what i bookmark. 

i made some adjustments to the original recipe. such as, adding a little white wine to the dressing and upping the lemon juice. i also replaced the feta with mozzarella (its what i had on hand), and used black rice instead of wild rice - i couldn't find any at the store that wasn't a blend. I also added some pan-seared halibut, to give it some protein. 

verdict: it was good, fresh and filling. however, it's expensive. the pomegranate was $3.24 for one, which gives you the 1 cup you need. pine nuts were crazy expensive when i was living in utah, and while they are more reasonable in texas, it was still about $2 for 1/2 cup. exotic rice (anything other than white rice) is a little more expensive. in this case, i think it was about $3 for the smallest bag i could find. feta and mozzarella is usually on the pricy end of cheeses. i try to buy organic vegetables when i can, which is what i did with the arugula here. the bag was over $3, but if i had time to hit up trader joe's it might have been a little less expensive. i also added the halibut, which was about $17 for the fillet size we got. andy likes meat with his meals, so this is how i trick him into eating salads. it's not necessary to the recipe at all. it would've tasted fine as is. adding chicken breast would've worked too if you wanted meat. but it was a friday night dinner and i was feeling some fancy white fish. 

the original recipe says it about 2-3 servings, but we managed to make it 4. dinner and then lunch the next day. you could probably make even more servings if you weren't feeding a hungry man. taste wise, i haven't been a fan of fruit in my salad and wasn't blown away by the pomegranate seeds here or anything, but they gave it a nice burst of citrus. especially with the addition of the fish. it's also such a pretty color! but definitely a lot more work to seed than i thought! 

tip: if you save this for a day after meal. reserve some lemon wedges to squeeze on top before you eat it. it'll give that reviving pop of freshness. 

view the full recipe here.