Mi madre pone granada en la ensalada, y a mi abuela le gustan los higos con queso.

Pone is the third-person singular present tense of poner.

• yo pongo = I put
• tú pones = you put
• él / ella pone = he / she puts

The subject here is mi madre, so pone means my mother puts / adds.

In food contexts, poner often means to add:

• Pone sal en la sopa = She adds salt to the soup.
• Pone aceite en la ensalada = She puts oil in the salad.

So Mi madre pone granada en la ensalada is a very natural way to say that she adds pomegranate to the salad.

Here, granada is being used as an ingredient, so Spanish often leaves out the article.

• pone granada en la ensalada = adds pomegranate to the salad

This is similar to how English often says adds cheese, adds tomato, adds onion, without needing a or the.

If you said la granada, it would sound more like a specific pomegranate:

• Pone la granada en la mesa = She puts the pomegranate on the table.

In this sentence, granada means some pomegranate / pomegranate as an ingredient.

Yes, here it means pomegranate.

A few useful notes:

• granada with a lowercase g can mean pomegranate
• Granada with a capital G is the city in Spain
• in some contexts, granada can also mean grenade

But because the sentence is about food and salad, the meaning is clearly pomegranate.

Because Spanish normally uses the article here: la ensalada.

It refers to the salad in question, and Spanish often uses definite articles more than English does. In this sentence, en la ensalada is the normal, natural phrase.

• en la sopa = in the soup
• en la pizza = on the pizza
• en la ensalada = in the salad

Saying en ensalada would not sound right here.

With gustar, the person who experiences the liking is introduced with a:

• A mi abuela le gustan los higos con queso

This does not mean that mi abuela is the subject. With gustar, the structure works differently from English.

A helpful literal idea is:

• To my grandmother, figs with cheese are pleasing

So a mi abuela means to my grandmother.

Because that is the normal Spanish pattern.

• a mi abuela = to my grandmother
• le = to her

Spanish very often uses both the full phrase and the indirect object pronoun together, especially with verbs like gustar.

So:

• A mi abuela le gustan los higos con queso

is more natural than leaving out le.

This doubling helps clarify or emphasize who the feeling applies to. You can think of le as a standard part of the gustar construction.

Because los higos con queso is plural, and gustar agrees with the thing being liked.

• los higos = the figs → plural
• therefore: gustan

Compare:

• A mi abuela le gusta el queso = My grandmother likes cheese.
• A mi abuela le gustan los higos = My grandmother likes figs.

So the verb matches higos, not abuela.

Because they are doing different jobs in the sentence.

Los higos is the main noun phrase and the grammatical subject of gustan, so the article is very natural:

• los higos con queso = figs with cheese

Spanish often uses the definite article with foods when talking about them generally or as a known dish/item:

• Me gustan las manzanas
• No como los tomates

But after con, queso is being used more like an ingredient or accompaniment, so no article is needed:

• pan con queso
• pasta con tomate
• higos con queso

If you wanted to talk about a specific cheese, you could use an article:

• los higos con el queso manchego

Yes. Spanish word order is more flexible than English word order.

These are all possible, though they may have slightly different emphasis:

• A mi abuela le gustan los higos con queso.
• Los higos con queso le gustan a mi abuela.

The version in your sentence is very natural. Putting a mi abuela early often helps highlight the person whose opinion we are talking about.

A simple guide:

• granada ≈ gra-NA-da
• higos ≈ EE-gos
• queso ≈ KE-so

A few key points:

• h is silent in higos
• qu before e sounds like k, so queso starts like keh-
• granada has the stress on the middle syllable: gra-NA-da

These are rough English-friendly guides, but they are close enough for a beginner.