Another quickie, but I made this last night and it was lovely, and I thought it was worth sharing. It’s a very refreshing salad, good for cutting through a rich meal (in this case, Rosa Mitchell’s insanely good pasta al forno, of which more later), and rather nice for winter weather, when there isn’t much around by way of salad greens. This recipe is inspired by her orange salad, which is even simpler than my version – to me, fennel and blood oranges were irresistible additions at this time of year, and I was right…
It is a bit fiddly to make, at least in my view (I’m sure there are people out there who can segment oranges efficiently, but I am not one of them), but very much worth it.
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2 blood oranges 2 navel oranges 1 large fennel bulb, or two small fennel bulbs 1/2 tsp chilli flakes 4 tbsp olive oil
Now what will you do with it?
Peel the oranges and segment them. If you are a bit obsessive like me, try to get the skin and pith off the segments, because it really is nicer. Pull your segments into two or three pieces each, and put in a bowl with whatever juices you have captured in the orange-disembowling process.
Slice the fennel bulb finely. If you have small fennel bulbs with fronds, feel free to use a few of the chopped fronds in this salad too. Add the fennel to the bowl with the oranges, sprinkle over the chilli flakes and oil, and toss to combine.
Serve at once!
Variations
This is, obviously, vegan, gluten-free, low-GI, nut-free, and even relatively low fructose. But then, it’s a salad – what did you expect? There are lots of fun things you could do with this. For one thing, don’t worry if you can’t get blood oranges – it’s fine with just the ordinary kind (might be fun to add a Seville orange if you had one to hand, though). Suitable Sicilian additions to this salad might be finely sliced red onion, a handful of black olives, or a few mint, thyme or oregano leaves. Or several of the above, together. But it’s pretty wonderful just left simple, like this.
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This time last year…
(heh, apparently it’s All Blood Oranges, All The Time for me in September…)