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Simanim (Good Omen) Salad
A KosherEye Heirloom Recipe

KosherEye invites you to try our wonderful Simanim (Good Omen) Salad. It is a tradition in our homes to serve this symbolic salad. We wish everyone a Healthy, Happy and Peaceful New Year – L'Shanah Tova.  While you are visiting with us, enjoy our large selection of Yom Tov recipes.

There are symbolic, "Simanim,"  foods that we eat on Rosh Hashanah. We eat that food as if to make their symbolic meaning part of us and hope to experience these good omens in the new year. This is a colorful salad incorporating many of the significant symbols to which we refer on Rosh Hashanah.

Some of the foods are:
Apple dipped in honey... that you renew us for a good and sweet year!
Gourds (e.g., pumpkin or squash) (Aramaic: kara, meaning 'to proclaim' or 'tear')... that our merits be proclaimed before You, and our sentences be torn up!
Leeks (Aramaic: karasai sounding like kares, meaning 'to cut off' or 'destroy')... may our enemies be destroyed!
Beets (Aramaic: silka sounding like siluk, meaning 'to remove')... may our adversaries be removed!
Dates (Aramaic: tamrai sounding like sheyitamu, meaning 'that they be consumed')... may our enemies be consumed!
Carrots (Yiddish: mehren meaning 'increase'. Hebrew: gezer, meaning 'decree')... may our merits increase before You!... may the evil decree be removed.
Pomegranates... that our merits be as numerous as [the seeds of] a pomegranate!

Ingredients:

Salad:
A combination of bags of fancy lettuces and spinach (romaine, butter etc. and spinach)  - enough for 10
1/2 cup raw peeled pumpkin seeds
4 red and golden apples, peeled and cut into small chunks
1/2 cup chopped dates
1/2 cup grated raw carrots
1 cup sliced beets, freshly roasted or from can (drain juice)

Dressing:
1/2  cup olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup pomegranate juice
2 teaspoons minced leek- white part only
1/4-cup honey
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic
Pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
Optional: add a new fruit too!
Top with fresh pomegranate arils (seeds)

Directions:

One or two days ahead: Combine all dressing ingredients; refrigerate. Roast beets and refrigerate.

On serving day, gently toss spinach and lettuces together. Just before serving combine lettuce mixture with dressing, toss again. Then top with beets, apples, carrots, dates and pumpkin seeds.

Notes:

Yield:  Serves 10