Persimmon and Fennel Salad with Savoury Granola and Maple Mustard Dressing

This vibrant persimmon salad will brighten any meal! Whether you serve it as a flavourful and fresh accompaniment to other dishes or as its own satisfying meal, it delivers on flavour, texture, and beauty.

It is peak persimmon season right now, and since we’ve been seeing tons of gorgeous persimmon recipes everywhere, we thought we’d create our own to share with you. We haven’t used too many persimmons in previous cooking endeavours, so we took this as a fun challenge to get creative and do a little experimenting. What we’ve come up with is this beautiful salad that combines flavours that we already know and love with the persimmon’s juicy and sweet, yet mellow flavour.
The Maple Mustard Dressing can be whisked together in less than five minutes, and its refreshing taste is everything you want and need on your salad! This dressing is the perfect pantry-friendly recipe, as you probably have most of these basic ingredients already in your kitchen. The sweet Canadian maple syrup truly balances the tang from the apple cider vinegar and Dijon mustard and creates a final product that’s got it all.
Don’t go anywhere yet, because we’re not quite done. A little salty, savoury crunch is exactly what our granola adds to this salad. This nutty and seedy treat is an awesome nutritious boost that adds plenty of protein to this salad. We mean it when we say you’ll want to start adding this to a lot more than this salad. This savoury granola is a fun switch from typically sweet granola, and it is bursting with flavour from lots of herbs and spices. It’s delicious on its own, but also it’s so versatile! You can really add this to anything; breakfast, lunch and dinner. SPRINKLE IT ON EVERYTHING!

Tossed all together, and this salad is truly perfect with all the fantastic components; persimmons, fresh veggies, savoury granola, and maple mustard Dressing. Each bit is salty, sweet, and tangy with a crunch!

Don’t forget to tag us in your creations – @smallkitchenbigplates

Persimmon and Fennel Salad with Savoury Granola and Maple Mustard Dressing

• Servings: 4
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes
• Time: 40 minutes
• Print

This vibrant persimmon salad will brighten any meal! Whether you serve it as a flavourful and fresh accompaniment to other dishes or as its own satisfying meal, it delivers on flavour, texture, and beauty.

Ingredients

Salad
• 4 cups kale, chopped
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 4 fuyu persimmons, chopped into chunks
• 1/2 small purple cabbage, thinly sliced
• 1/2 large bulb fennel, thinly sliced
• Seeds of 1 pomegranate

Savoury Granola Topping
• 1/2 cup walnut pieces
• 1/2 cup pecan pieces
• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 3 sprigs rosemary, leaves removed and finely chopped (1 teaspoon dried)
• 3 sprigs thyme, leaves removed and finely chopped (1 teaspoon dried)
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of pepper

Maple Mustard Dressing
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
• 1 sprig rosemary, leaves removed and finely chopped (1/2 teaspoon dried)
• 1 sprig thyme, leaves removed and finely chopped (1/2 teaspoon dried)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and line a baking sheet with a silicone mat.
2. Add the walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds, maple syrup and olive oil in a bowl and stir to combine. Add the nutritional yeast, rosemary, thyme, cumin, salt, and pepper and mix so everything is thoroughly coated in the spices. Spread it in a thin, even layer on the baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.
3. Meanwhile, make the dressing. Whisk all of the ingredients for the dressing together in a small bowl or jar and set aside.
4. In a large serving bowl, add the chopped kale. Add the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper and gently massage the kale with your hands for a minute. Add the chopped persimmons, sliced cabbage and fennel, and dressing and gently toss the salad.
5. If the granola is in large chunks, break it up into small pieces and sprinkle it over top of the salad. Garnish with the pomegranate seeds and serve immediately.

Notes

1. For the savoury granola, you can use a combination of any nuts and seeds, as long as it equals 1.5 cups in total.