This versatile salad features winter broccoli and oranges. The rest is up to you. Add in tender or crunchy lettuces or other leaves like spinach, peppery arugula or vibrant red cabbage (pictured above). Roughly chopped herbs are wonderful in this mix — mint, cilantro, dill, parsley. Try some feathery fennel fronds (or shaved bulb). If you can get your hands on a few edible flowers like calendula or broccoli add them at the very last minute before serving. This salad is crunchy, bold and slightly sweet — a colorful mound of pleasure for the eyes as well as the palate.
Be sure to catch the orange juice drippings as you peel — they add sweet citrus flavor to the nutty, mustard-walnut oil dressing. If that request causes stress, no worries, just squeeze another cut orange half into the dressing instead.
Ingredients:
- 3 oranges, skins cut off and fruit cut cross-wise into slices (reserve juice from peel and peeling process)
- 1/3 cup walnut oil
- 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- 6 cups leafy greens like leaf or romaine lettuce, arugula, spinach, dino kale, red cabbage
- 1 head broccoli, stems peeled and cut into thin, julienne strips and florets cut into small pieces
- Fresh herbs of late winter/early spring — chervil, dill, mint, cilantro, parsley
- Shaved red onion
- Large handful toasted walnuts (or Trader Joe’s candied walnuts), broken into large pieces
Method:
- Combine orange juice (about 1 or 2 tablespoons), walnut oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper in a small, clean jelly jar (I reserve a used one for mixing my dressings). Shake to combine.
- Tear or chop all the leaves into bite-sized pieces (spinach can often be left whole). Cut cabbage (if using) into thin shreds. Combine with broccoli, herbs and onion in a large salad bowl. Toss with dressing (you may not need it all — save the rest for another salad), and top with orange slices (broken up into smaller segment pieces), nuts and flowers (if you have them — see headnote).
