Idlib Pomegranate and Walnut Salad

The pomegranate is an almost sacred fruit in Idlib. The orchards of the Orontes River valley — the same agricultural land cultivated since the Neolithic period — produce pomegranates of exceptional sweetness and juice content that are sold fresh across northern Syria from September through December. The pomegranate appears in Idlib cooking in multiple registers: as a fruit, as molasses, as fresh juice, and as a garnish. This salad has no Arabic name beyond its description — it is simply "pomegranate salad" — suggesting it predates the formal culinary lexicon. There is no equivalent in Lebanese cooking; tabbouleh dominates the Lebanese salad identity, but Idlib has its own salad architecture centered on what grows abundantly here. The use of both fresh pomegranate and pomegranate molasses together is characteristically northern Syrian — doubling a flavor to intensify it rather than diversify it.