Pure Leaf Iced Tea Holiday Recipes By Celebrity Chef Gail Simmons

Nothing says Holiday Season, more sparkling drinks, seasonal salads and delicious decorations! That is why Pure Leaf Iced Tea teamed up with Celebrity Chef and Mom Gail Simmons to bring us some wonderful new recipes for this Season.

Let’s check out some of these recipes and then I’m going to tell you which ones I’m going to be serving up December 25th!

Lemon-Ginger Tea Pomegranate Sparkler

By Gail Simmons

Serves 2

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, thinly sliced

1 cup Pure Leaf Iced Tea with Lemon

1/2 cup pomegranate juice

Cold club soda

2 tablespoons pomegranate seeds, for garnish

2 cinnamon sticks, for garnish

Instructions: In a saucepan, combine the ginger and Pure Leaf Iced Tea with Lemon and bring to a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to steep, about 10 minutes. Allow to cool in an airtight container in the fridge.

Fill two highball glasses with ice. Pour 1/2 cup ginger-infused tea, then 1/4 cup pomegranate juice into each glass. Top each with club soda, garnish with a tablespoon of pomegranate seeds and a cinnamon stick to stir.

For alcoholic version, add 2 ounces gin or bourbon before adding tea.

Doesn’t that sound absolutely delicious? I love that you can make it non-alcoholic or as an adults-only beverage! Can we say Score?!

Shaved Fall Vegetable Salad with Tea-Pickled Radishes

By Gail Simmons

Serves 4

FOR THE TEA-PICKLED RADISHES:

1 cup Pure Leaf Sweet Tea, warmed but not boiling

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 cup apple cider vinegar

8 small radishes, thinly sliced or 4 large watermelon radishes

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

Instructions: In a medium bowl, combine the tea with the salt; stir to dissolve. Add the vinegar along with the radishes, garlic and peppercorns. Cover and refrigerate at least an hour or overnight. Drain the pickled radishes, reserving 1Ž4 cup of pickling liquid for use in vinaigrette. Set aside.

Note: The drained radishes can be refrigerated for up to 1 week.

FOR THE SHAVED VEGETABLE SALAD:

1/4 cup reserved picking liquid

1 tablespoon honey

Kosher Salt

Freshly Ground Pepper

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced

2 sweet, crisp apples, such as Gala or Fuji, cored and thinly sliced into half moons

2 small heads radicchio, thinly sliced

4 celery stalks, thinly sliced on a bias, leaves reserved for garnish

2 tablespoons roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley

Tea-Pickled Radishes, see recipe above

Instructions: Pour the reserved pickling liquid into a large bowl. Add the honey and whisk to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Slowly add olive oil in a steady stream, whisking constantly to emulsify. Add the fennel, apple, radicchio, celery, parsley and pickled radishes to the bowl and toss all ingredients together to coat. Season with more salt and pepper if desired and garnish with celery leaves before serving.

I’m not much into pickled veggies, but this one just sounds so different, savory and sweet. Now as I promised I’m going to tell you which one of these I’m going to make for our Holiday dinner, and quite frankly, I’ve bought the ingredients to make both! There are more recipes to try out so go on over and check out Pure Leaf Iced Tea‘s site!