Refreshing Winter Citrus Salad Recipe

Tis the season for oranges to be plentiful and this Refreshing Winter Citrus Salad Recipe is just the thing to drown out the winter blues, wake up your tastebuds and start thinking about spring!

You know I love blood oranges and Cara Cara’s are so nice too as this salad combines both of them along with pink grapefruit, regular navel oranges, some celery for crunch and young escarole leaves for a touch of bitterness. The oil cured black olives add contrast and just the right amount of extra salt, while the thinly slivered red onions do their thing. This is DELICIOUS!!

We are rounding home stretch of moving and cleaning EVERYTHING out of our offices, reorganizing and repositioning the businesses, coming home dirty and dusty every night for the past week and this salad is just the thing that cleans our bodies and souls up before jumping into the shower and then bed. This is also the reason there has been a pause in my posts. 

Of course you don’t have to be dirty and tired to enjoy this salad. It’s crisp and refreshing at any time. Beautiful to look at, with all the colors, it’s a feast for the eyes too. This is the kind of salad that’s so good, you just want to keep shoveling it in and mumbling mmm’s.

Please make sure you peel all of the citrus as described below, with a sharp knife. You don’t want any bitter pith coming in to ruin your dish. Make this now, with LOVE, while all the oranges are plentiful. Enjoy!!!

REFRESHING WINTER CITRUS SALAD RECIPE – serves 3 – 4

4 Tbs. olive oil
2 Tbs. sherry vinegar  
Salt and pepper
1 navel orange
2 blood oranges
2 Cara Cara oranges
1 small pink grapefruit
1/2 small red onion, very thinly sliced
3 tender inside celery stalks, thinly sliced at an angle
Handful of black oil cured olives
½ small head of escarole, tender inside leaves
Large pinch of flaky Maldon sea salt

Whisk together olive oil and vinegar in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Wash and spin dry the escarole leaves. Wrap in paper toweling and chill in the refrigerator.

To remove the peel from all of the citrus fruit, use a small serrated or very sharp boning knife. First, cut off a thin slice of peel from the top and bottom of the orange, so it can sit flat on the cutting board. Next, take off the peel, cutting from top to bottom, following the curve of the fruit. Try to remove only the peel and white pith, not the flesh of the fruit. It should end up being perfectly spherical and naked.

Once peeled, carefully slice peeled citrus crosswise. Arrange escarole leaves on a large platter. Arrange all citrus slices in a random pattern on top of the escarole, letting them overlap a bit here and there. Scatter onion and celery over top. Dot the surface with olives.

Whisk vinaigrette again, and spoon evenly over the salad. Sprinkle lightly with flaky salt and serve with LOVE.

Enjoy!!!