The orchard at our farm is laden with citrus at this time of year, so whipping up a tasty salad is easier than ever. This salad is perfect with crusty bread, and can be a vegetarian meal on its own (vegan if we omit the feta) or a perfect side for a barbeque or roast. It goes beautifully with grilled fish or chicken.
Ingredients to serve four generously:
4 cups of salad leaves (using rocket, mustard greens, radish tops or other leaves with a little bite to them contrasts well with the oranges), a fennel bulb or two, a bunch of fresh chard if available (or add in two cups of baby spinach), one small red onion, two large oranges cut into segments (if you’re mad on oranges feel free to add another one!), a generous handful of walnuts, 1/2 a cup of olives, optional – 1 cup of feta cheese chunks.
Method:
Clean and wash your salad greens, and tear leaves into smaller pieces if desired. Finely chop the fennel. Slice your onion into thin rings or pieces and arrange in the serving bowl.
Now chop your chard, cutting the stalks into small pieces and roughly shredding the leaves. Add these in and toss well with your hands to combine the ingredients.
Segment your oranges over a bowl, keeping back the excess juice to use in the dressing. If you don’t know how to segment oranges, watch this video:
Arrange your orange segments, walnuts and olives on the top of the salad. If you’re using feta cheese, chuck that on too. Just before serving, pour on the dressing.
Dressing:
1/4 cup orange juice, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon Dijon-style prepared mustard, 1 to 2 teaspoons honey, a grind or two of cracked pepper and a pinch of salt. Put all the ingredients in a small jar, add lid and shake vigorously to combine. This is an oil-free dressing that is light and flavorsome.
Salad Variations:
Add cooked, sliced chicken breast for a complete meal.
Sliced cooked lamb fillet is wonderful for a warm salad.
Substitute cherry tomatoes for feta, and add fresh peeled prawns (shrimp) – this is one of my favourite salads!
Enjoy! ♥ xx
Now you have ME looking forward to the coming change of seasons! 🙂
As soon as I saw this salad I immediately wanted to make it 🙂 So, that’s exactly what I did :)) I picked up some fresh fennel…then added romaine, spinach, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, red onion, oranges, and kalamata olives. Superb!! The dressing is fantastic!! Subtle, with a perfect amount of sweetness from the oj and honey. I’ll bet feta cheese and/or chicken would be amazing but my belly doesn’t do well with either ingredient boo 🙁 will definitely be making this again soon!! Thank you so much for sharing!! 😀
I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed it, Maria! 😀 Much love to you xx
Looks like it taste delicious! I must try to have orange in the salad next time!
Lovely salad! I love all the bold flavours you put in there!
I love the tangy-sweet combination of orange and olives – it doesn’t seem as if it would work, but it really does. And fennel…so good.
Wow, you are lucky to have oranges in your backyard 🙂
I love oranges in salad – yours look beautiful!