Well, it’s that time of year when all the fun winter citrus varieties are available. One variety I’ve always loved is the blood orange. As I’ve gotten older it’s because of the flavor, but when I was younger it was totally cause of the deep crimson color. And, when blood oranges are in season, so is Belgian endive, so why not pair them together. It’s a classic combo, nothing new here, but still a good one.
For this version I expanded my citrus horizons and used some Cara Cara oranges as well. I highly recommend them. They have a slight pink blush to the fruit, and are super sweet. Totally not necessary for the recipe, but if you see them around grab em, you wont be disappointed. As for the other components of the salad, I added in some toasted hazelnuts, orange scented ricotta and a tart lemon and thyme vinaigrette.
I expanded my citrus horizons and used some Cara Cara oranges as well. I highly recommend them. They have a slight pink blush to the fruit, and are super sweet. Totally not necessary for the recipe, but if you see them around grab em, you wont be disappointed.
Endive Salad
Ingredients
The Salad
- 2 heads Belgian endive
- 1 cara cara orange segmented
- blood orange segmented
- 1/4 C hazelnuts toasted and chopped
- 1/4 C ricotta
- 1 lemon zested
The Vinaigrette
- 1/2 lemon juice
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp fresh thyme
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
- First, combine all the ingredients for the dressing, check for seasoning and set aside.
- Then, take a handful of hazelnuts and toast them in a dry pan over medium-low heat. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn. They should be done when you can start to smell them. Should only take a few minutes.
- Next, I combine the ricotta and some zest from the lemon and blood orange, a pinch of salt and a few drops of the blood orange juice from my cutting board.
- And then finally, the fussy bit, cutting up the oranges. I would recommend you supreme the citrus, just cutting segments so you don’t have any of the membrane in the salad. But, if you don’t have the patience or desire to, don’t worry about it. Just slice away the skin and pith, and cut crosswise so you have nice disks of the oranges. And, just a note, keep the blood oranges separate from whatever other citrus you’re using if you don’t want it all turning that deep crimson hue.
- Now to plate up! Just scatter all the components on the plate, throw over your chopped toasted nuts, a few small spoonfuls of the cheese and then drizzle over some dressing. I would recommend, assembling the salad like this, rather than tossing everything together in a big bowl, since like I said before, that color will stain whatever it touches. It will still taste good, it’ll just all be pink. I also had a bit of blood orange juice left from when I cut the segments so I gave a little drizzle of the juice over the salad to finish it all off.
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