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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Refreshing Winter Citrus Salad Recipe

March 5, 2017 by Mary 9 Comments

Refreshing Winter Citrus Salad Recipe on a round platter.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-luscious close-up.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!!!

Filed Under: First Course, Salads Tagged With: blood oranges, Cara Cara oranges, escarole, oranges, Refreshing Winter Citrus Salad Recipe, winter citrus salad, winter salads

Perfect Salad of Endive, Blood Oranges & Golden Beets for your Sweetheart

February 14, 2016 by Mary 9 Comments

 

Perfect Salad of Endive, Blood Oranges and Golden Beets.We are ensconced in upstate New York where the temperature is -9 degrees. No joke. And that’s not the wind chill number, which I am afraid to even know. I had a duck breast that needed to be cooked yesterday, so I made a special dinner last night and I will make one again tonight to celebrate Valentine’s Day! It is way too cold to venture out. Much better to just snuggle in at home. So last night, I made this Perfect Salad (as my husband called it) of Endive, Blood Oranges & Golden Beets. It was refreshing, delicious and different. A crisp way to start a meal so I wanted to share this with you – make it tonight for your sweetheart!

It is simple and quick to make – except for roasting the beets takes some time. I love blood oranges. They remind me of a past romantic trip to Italy many years ago. Steve remarked that although these blood oranges were good, they are better in Italy. Maybe that was the romance part?

Sliced duck breast, farro, snow peas and shiitake mushrooms on a dinner plate.

Dinner was followed by a duck breast seasoned with Chinese Five Spice and star anise and topped with a special ingredient that may go in the next MARY’s secret ingredients box (it’s amazing!), farro and snow peas sautéed with shiitake mushrooms.

Tonight I’m making a Caesar salad, roast beef, baked potato and lemon roasted asparagus. A real traditional dinner Steve will also love.

What’s on your menu?

PERFECT SALAD OF ENDIVE, BLOOD ORANGES & GOLDEN BEETS – serves 2

1 Belgian endive, trimmed and separated into leaves
2 blood oranges
3 small to medium-sized golden beets – roasted (roast extra for another day!)
1 heaping Tbs. finely minced shallot
1 Tbs. red wine vinegar
2 Tbs. olive oil + 2 tsp. for the beets
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Scrub the beets and dry with paper toweling. Place beets on a sheet of aluminum foil, drizzle on 2 teaspoons of olive oil, season with Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Close foil up to make a neat sealed packet. Place packet in a baking dish and roast in the oven for an hour. Check for tenderness carefully as steam will blast out of the aluminum foil. A skewer should pierce each beet easily when done. Let cool and then peel and quarter each beet.

Trim, wash and pat dry each endive leave.

Wash oranges. Slice off the top and bottom so the orange will stand up flat on the cutting board. Then slice off all the peel and pith, top to bottom, following the curve of the orange with your knife. Slice each orange horizontally into 4 or 5 slices. Remove any white center part.

Combine the shallots with the vinegar in a small bowl. Gradually whisk in the olive oil and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Arrange the endive in a fan shape at the top of the plate, then fan out the blood oranges and then the quartered beets at the bottom. Drizzle the vinaigrette over all. Serve right away with LOVE.

If you forgot to get a V-day gift for your honey, go to MARY’s secret ingredients and order a full year subscription. It’s the gift that keeps on giving all year long with seasonal deliveries. Download a gift certificate at checkout to print and present today. The next box – spring – mails on March 25th and it is going to be AMAZING! Use the code VALENTINESDAY for 20% off!

Filed Under: First Course, Salads Tagged With: blood oranges, endives, golden beets, perfect salads

Blood Orange, Avocado and Baby Kale Salad

March 15, 2015 by Mary 14 Comments

As many of you know, I LOVE salads. I eat one for lunch almost every single day. I really believe that it’s important to eat some raw fruits and vegetables daily. And I adore blood oranges. Their season is NOW so try to go out and buy some and make this Blood Orange, Avocado and Baby Kale Salad. It’s so simple, refreshing, and truly delicious.

Blood oranges always remind me of Italy – a beloved place for my whole family. My husband worked with the largest Italian shoe manufacturer, the Soldinis, in the early years of our marriage, running the women’s division for North America. (Boy did I have a shoe collection then!) He came back from trips there and always remarked how they often had fruit for dessert and that the Italians were deft at eating it with a knife and fork! The first time I ever tasted a blood orange was in Italy – when I would go on trips as the “wife” – not working myself. Then our oldest son chose to be in Italy for his university semester abroad. And as luck would have it, the University of Rochester had their Italian branch in Arezzo, Tuscany, exactly the same city where we spent the most amount of our time, since the Soldinis lived there.

While our oldest was there in school, we made a family trip to visit and of course got in touch with the Soldinis, and they invited all of us to their home for a traditional Sunday lunch. Elita served a 12 course meal! This lunch lasted from noon to past 4 pm. She made everything – all so delicious. I remember at least three different meat courses, soup, two different pastas, salad, vegetables, on and on, it was a feast. And I kept on asking to help her and she kept refusing, but finally I insisted. She did have a woman helping get things out of the kitchen but everything else she did. It was such an amazing memorable time for food and conversation. Rossano was around when our oldest was born and now here we were all together again, all grown, on their turf. And yes, we did have fruit for dessert, served with a knife and fork. 

Here’s the salad – not really a recipe – just a great combination of ingredients put together. Make it with LOVE and enjoyBlood orange, Avocado and baby kale salad on a white plate..

BLOOD ORANGE, AVOCADO AND BABY KALE SALAD – serves 2

2 handfuls of baby kale greens – washed and dried
1 ripe avocado, peeled and sliced
2 blood oranges, peeled with a sharp knife and sliced
2 scallions, sliced, white and light green parts only
Finest extra virgin olive oil you can find – I used Harmonian Kalamata olive oil from our fall MARY’s secret ingredients box
Salt
Pepper, fresh ground

Slice the ends off of the oranges and hold one flat and firm, cut side down, on a cutting board while slicing the peel and pith off with a sharp knife. Roll the orange over and slice into 4 slices.

Place a handful of baby kale on each plate. Put alternating slices of avocado and blood orange on top of the kale. Top with sliced scallions. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Drizzle some olive oil on top. No need for any vinegar as you have the citrus with the oranges. Enjoy!

Filed Under: First Course, Salads, Sides Tagged With: avocados in salads, baby kale, best salads, blood oranges, vegetarian

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

Spread love through cooking.

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