This salad is very flexible – you can vary ingredients depending on your preferences. Add more fennel—if you enjoy its licorice flavor—or less if you don’t. Vary the citrus depending on your preference for the sweetness of orange or the sour taste of grapefruit. I like to add a good amount of arugula, but if that’s too spicy a taste for you, simply add a milder lettuce, or use less of the spicy green. Packaged “Sweet and Spicy Pecans” can be found at Trader Joe’s stores.
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon coarse grain mustard
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 celery ribs cut crosswise into ¼ inch slices
- ½ medium fennel bulb, feathery stalks removed
- 1 small sweet onion, peeled
- 1-2 cups baby arugula leaves (depending on taste)
- 2 oranges
- ½ medium pink grapefruit
- Small handful of spiced pecans or plain nuts
Method:
- Cut peel, including white pith, from the oranges and grapefruit. Cut fruit segments from the connective membrane of each fruit. Squeeze any remaining juice from the orange membranes into a bowl and reserve. Set aside citrus segments.
- Make vinaigrette by whisking first 4 ingredients together (vinegar through salt) plus 3 tablespoons of reserved orange juice. Add oil in a slow stream while whisking to combine. Taste for salt and pepper, and add more as needed.
- To toast nuts, place whole nuts (walnuts or pecans work well) in a dry pan and toast over medium heat until lightly browned. Shake pan to turn nuts several times during toasting, keeping a close eye on them, as they burn easily. Remove from pan and coarsely chop.
- Using a mandolin or other slicer, cut fennel into very thin slices. Slice onion in a similar fashion into very thin half rings.
- Toss celery, fennel, arugula and onion in a bowl with just enough vinaigrette to completely coat. Save any remaining vinaigrette for another use. Add nuts and citrus segments and lightly toss.
- Taste for salt and pepper, and add more as needed.
