Ready for some summer weather!?
A couple of weeks ago everyone from my office went for a work lunch and even though I was tempted to order a big pizza I quickly opted for a house salad as everyone decided on healthy options. I work in a really healthy office, no biscuit tin to be seen! This is actually quite nice to be honest, I can still buy treats if I fancy it, but the temptation isn’t always there.
The salad I ordered seemed to have absolutely everything in it! Avocado, orange, grapefruit, beetroot, salad leaves, tomatoes, hazelnuts and many more salad items. It was nice but I found it confused so I decided to do my own version with a selection of the flavours I really enjoyed.
I used to eat a turkey and orange salad all the time and since I turned vegetarian I actually haven’t eaten oranges in a salad, and as soon as I tried it again I fell in love with the juicy sweet freshness it adds to a savoury salad.
The second addition to this salad is the hazelnut dukkah. This was on the salad I had at the restaurant, when I read it on the menu I got really excited as I’d never tried it before but when it turned up all I could find was toasted hazelnuts. I googled dukkah and it describes the dish as nuts mixed with spices so I gave it a go and I think it worked amazingly, especially with the fresh oranges.
I used the dukkah as a sort of dry dressing as it coats everything with flavour and the orange segments act as a wetter ingredient. Make sure everyone has enough orange segments to balance out the flavours.
Autumn colours, summer flavours
Serves 2
Vegetarian, dairy free, gluten free, fruity!
Handful of Watercress
1 small head of Lettuce – chopped
1/2 Raw beetroot
8 spears of Asparagus,
1 large Orange or 2 medium sized ones
Hazelnut Dukkah- 5 toasted hazelnuts blitzed with 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds and black pepper.
1 teaspoon pumpkin seeds
Organic extra virgin Olive oil
The method is very simple – peel the orange and slice into thick segments, peel and finely chop the beetroot into little match sticks and peel and roughly chop the asparagus.
Dry fry the fennel seeds, crushed hazelnuts and coriander seeds until slightly golden and the aroma has been released. Blitz them with some black pepper in a blender and then stir in the pumpkin seeds. Put this to one side to sprinkle over the salad. It should smell amazing and fragrant!
Griddle the asparagus until soft and slightly browned and leave to cool slightly.
Assemble your salad with the mixed lettuce and watercress on the bottom and then the beetroot, orange and asparagus spears scattered around then sprinkle over the hazelnut dukkah and drizzle over good quality olive oil.
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Yummy! The colors are great too
That was one of my favourite things about this salad, so colourful 🙂 thanks!
A fantastic combination – love the citrus, the fennel, the hazelnuts – wonderful!
The fennel seeds were a last minute addition and now I couldn’t imagine the salad without them! They work beautifully with the orange 🙂
You had us at “crushed hazelnuts” 🙂 Looks delightful! We will have to add this to our upcoming family menu, thanks!
Glad you like it! Hazelnuts are so delicious
Mmmm yes! I love fruit on a salad! I forgot how delicious that could be – thanks for the reminder :-p
A while ago I started ageing mangos to my salad and now I try everything! Apples and pears are lovely in salads too 🙂
even though it’s autumn and getting colder here this would go wonderfully as a side dish for something hearty and home cooked 🙂
Definitely! You could swap the fruit for something more autumnal and in season near you 🙂