Recipe: Persimmon and pear salad — an easy, crunchy and sweet dish

Persimmons are in season from September to November, so prepare this quick and easy salad which also has pear, beetroot, butternut squash and cheese.

Persimmon and pear salad [KIM HYE-JOON]

Chef Edward Lee threw a spotlight on persimmons — an ingredient unfamiliar to many nations — when he prepared a grilled pork neck salad featuring persimmon and aged kimchi sauce on Netflix's cooking survival show, “Culinary Class Wars.”

The sweetness of the persimmon perfectly complemented the chewy pork neck, allowing the Korean American chef to outperform his competitor and ultimately secure a top-two finish.

Kim Hye-joon, food content director at the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, offers another simple and healthy way to incorporate persimmons into your diet, sharing a recipe for an easy fruit salad that’s also suitable for people with diabetes, like himself.

“It’s challenging to prepare grandiose meals every day. So why not try arranging your favorite ingredients on a plate and exploring combinations you might not usually attempt to add some fun to your diet?”

Persimmon and pear salad [KIM HYE-JOON]

━ Kim Hye-joon’s persimmon and pear salad recipe

Ingredients (for two people): A handful each of baby kale and baby spinach — 1/4 sweet persimmon — 1/5 pear — A dash of Foume d’Ambert cheese — 1/4 beetroot — 1/4 butternut squash — 2 tablespoons of white wine vinaigrette — 1 tablespoon of olive oil — A pinch each of salt and pepper.

Instructions 1. Trim the beetroots and butternut squash, season with salt, pepper, and olive oil, and roast them for 20 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit). 2. Rinse the five-color barley and cook it in water at twice the volume of the barley. 3. Slice the persimmon and pear into thick, bite-sized pieces. 4. Wash and drain the baby kale and baby spinach. 5. While the boiled barley cools, mix it with 3 tablespoons of white wine vinaigrette, salt, pepper, and olive oil. 6. On a plate, arrange the greens from step 4, top with the five-color barley from step 5, and add the roasted vegetables from step 1. 7. Place the persimmon and pear slices crosswise on the side of the dish. Cut the Foume d’Ambert cheese into pea-sized pieces and scatter them freely on top. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of pepper.

Butternut squash and beetroot cut in cubes. [KIM HYE-JOON]

Pro tips from our food content director Kim Hye-joon "Persimmons, with their crunchy texture and sweetness similar to pears, are in season from September to November. I usually eat them with the skin, which is quite thin.

"As someone with diabetes, I have to be mindful of fructose levels, but fruits are an essential part of daily nutrition. The key is how you consume them.

"Persimmons, with a Brix (sugar content) of 16, pair well with olive oil and cheese, balancing sweetness. I enjoy adding a variety of greens and nutrient-rich ingredients to my salad. Mixing white vinaigrette with grains like barley creates a well-balanced, nutritious dish. Antioxidant-rich greens, high in vitamins and calcium, such as baby spinach, work particularly well in these salads.

"For extra protein, you can add chicken breast. However, in this recipe, I recommend cutting butternut squash — which enhances the autumn flavor — and beetroot into cubes, then roasting them with olive oil, salt and pepper. Preparing them ahead of time makes it easy to incorporate them into soups, salads or pastas. Butternut squash, sometimes called peanut pumpkin, is great for people with diabetes as it contains less sugar than sweet pumpkin. While usually used in soups, when roasted, it develops a flavor reminiscent of dried sweet potato. Roasting beetroot also removes its earthy taste, making it a vibrant addition to salads.

"Pairing cheese with fruits can be a fun experiment. After trying Foume d’Ambert blue cheese with thinly sliced pear and ice cream last autumn, I often pair good pears with blue cheese at home. The saltiness of the cheese balances out the sweetness of the fruit. Soft cheeses like Comté or Brie pair beautifully with apples and can also be enjoyed with hard sausages or ham. For a playful twist, try Emmental cheese sticks with ground black pepper."

BY KIM HYE-JOON, WOO JI-WON [woo.jiwon@joongang.co.kr]