Fennel, orange and grapefruit salad with mint

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The year was 2013 when I posted a dish by the Hairy Dieters to illustrate on strange food habits. Like, for example, eating over and over again the same dish or ingredient for a whole season.  Over and over again…  The dish in question was orange and fennel salad with harissa dressing (here). Almost 2 years after, another fennel and citrus salad shows up, this time to explain that grapefruit (and avocado) are my food crazes of 2015.  Well, citrus were exceptionally good this year and any excuse was good to have them. Not trying to convert this in a head to head citrus salad competition…. this one is a more sophisticated and chefy, ideal to impress  dinner parties mobile calorie intake units guests. Also, it calls for the best ingredients you can find. There is no harissa to hide in this one. In any case, totally worth the effort.

Fennel, orange and grapefruit salad with mint (adapted from a Matthew Accarrino’s recipe found in Food & Wine Magazine)

Ingredients 

  • 2 red grapefruits
  • 2 navel oranges
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 fennel bulbs—halved, cored and thinly sliced
  • 2 tablespoons small mint leaves
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

Method 

Using a sharp knife, cut the skin and white pith from the grapefruits and oranges. Working over  bowl, cut between the membranes to release the sections into the bowl. Squeeze the membranes to extract the juice. In a small bowl, stir the olive oil with the honey and lemon juice. Add 3 tablespoons of the citrus juice and season with salt. [You most likely won’t need all the juice] In a shallow serving bowl, toss the fennel and citrus sections with the dressing. Garnish with the mint leaves and ground coriander and serve right away.


Grapefruit and sumac salad

grapefruit salad

My iPhone  Samsung Galaxy Note, whom never lies, tells me today is going to be a nice sunny day. The tepid 24oC it promised, seems as good as an excuse as any other to together this lovely salad. It almost feels a bit too summery for the end of April, even. But when the sun is out you have to enjoy it while it is there. If it goes again, God only knows when it will be back. And, apparently, grapefruits are in season…

Pink grapefruit and sumac salad  (adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s column in The Guardian)

Ingredients 

  • 5 pink or red grapefruits for the salad
  • 300mL of grapefruit juice (a big one is suffice).
  • 2 tbsp caster sugar
  • 1 small dried red chilli
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1½ tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon sumac
  • ½ red onion, peeled and very thinly sliced
  • 2-3 small red chicory, separated, and large leaves cut in half on an angle
  • 80g lamb’s lettuce (Valerianella locusta)
  • Salt

Method

Top and tail five grapefruits so they’ll stand on a board. Cut down the side of each grapefruit, following its natural lines, to remove the skin and white pith. Over a bowl to catch the juices, cut in between the membranes to separate the individual segments. Dry the segments on kitchen paper and squeeze any juice from the skin and membranes into a saucepan.

Squeeze enough juice from the last grapefruit to make the juice in the pan up to 300ml. Add the sugar and chilli, bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer until the sauce thickens and you have about five tablespoons-worth of juice left – this could take up to 20 minutes. Set aside to cool down, then whisk in the oil, lemon juice, sumac and a quarter-teaspoon of salt.

In a large bowl, put the grapefruit segments, onion, chicory, watercress and basil. Pour over three-quarters of the dressing and toss gently. (If it seems dry, add all the dressing; otherwise, save it in the fridge for another leafy salad.) Serve at once.