Avocado and Citrus Salad

Late winter is a great time for citrus fruits.  Though California avocados aren't in season, because of the Mexican avocado crops, it's usually pretty easy to find good avocados.  The orange and red grapefruit in this salad provide just enough acidity to keep the avocado from turning brown too quickly, but this is still a salad that you want to eat as soon as you make it.  It's be great on its own, but was nice on a bed of baby spinach.  This made enough for two generous dinner servings.  If this is part of a larger meal, it would serve four and is easily doubled.  It'd make a refreshing salad for Easter!

Avocado and Citrus Salad
1 navel orange "supremed" (see directions below)
1 red grapefruit, also supremed
juice from supreming the fruit
1 tablespoon honey
1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 thin slice of red onion, chopped
1 avocado
2 cups baby spinach, washed and dried

Supreming citrus fruit:  Slice the ends off of the fruit and stand it on one cut end.  Slice the skin off the fruit, taking care to cut all of the bitter pith off but leave as much of the fruit as you can.  Hold the peeled fruit in one hand and, over a small bowl or measuring to catch the juices, slice on either side of each segment to free the fruit.  Place the segments on a cutting board.  When all of the segments have been removed, squeeze the remaining membranes over the small bowl to extract as much juice as you can for the dressing.  Cut the segments into about 1-inch pieces and place in a salad bowl.   Stir the honey into the juice, blending well.  With a whisk, slowly add the olive oil to emulsify. Whisk in a pinch of salt and pepper and set aside.  Cut the avocado in half length-wise and open. Remove the pitt and peel each side.  Cut into about 1-inch chunks. Add the avocado and diced onion to the citrus fruit and toss. Pour the dressing on top and toss again.  Taste and add salt and pepper if needed and/or some more olive oil.  Place one cup of spinach on a salad plate or bowl and top with half of the fruit/avocado.  Enjoy!

Blueberry Mint Honey Vinegar & Salad Dressing

That white dot in the center of the two bottles is a blurry shot of one of our colonies!

My blueberry growing friend and colleague (and blog fan!) Ruth has promised to freeze a few of her delicious berries for me for when I return to campus in the fall (thanks, Ruth!).  We're lucky that we also live by a pick-your-own blueberry farm where I send Robert to bring back some of the bounty.  You can't have too many blueberries, that's for sure!

Miriam Rubin's "Miriam's Garden" column in the food section of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently included this great recipe for Blueberry-Mint Vinegar that she credits to Nancy Hanst, whose recipes often show up in Post-Gazette's food section.  The vinegar (which takes a few days to steep) makes a great base for an on-the-sweet-side salad dressing that would be lovely on a spinach or lettuce salad or used to dress some freshly roasted beets.  Instead of mint, you could use basil (which is from the mint family after all).




Blueberry-Mint-Honey Vinegar
1 cup white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
1 cup fresh (or frozen and thawed) blueberries
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves--I used spearmint, but peppermint would be nice, too.

Bring the vinegar and honey to a boil.  Place the berries and mint in a jar and pour the vinegar-honey over them.  Cover and let steep for about 48 hours.  Strain out the berries and mint (not pressing on the berries) and then decant the vinegar into a bottle.

Blueberry-Mint-Honey Salad Dressing
1 small garlic clove
1/4 cup blueberry-mint-honey vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon mayonnaise (optional but helps the dressing to stay emulsified)
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

In a small food processor, mince the garlic clove.  Add the vinegar, honey & mayonnaise and whirl to blend. With processor running, slowly stream in the olive oil and blend until fully emulsified.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Store in the refrigerator.  Makes 1 cup and keeps for about a week.

Spinach Orange Salad with Honey-Sesame Dressing

This is another great recipe from the Vegetarian Times.  The dressing also makes a nice dipping sauce for spring rolls or Asian dumplings or pot sticklers.  Though it seems as if spring really has sprung in these parts, this is a nice winter salad that can help to chase the winter blues away.

Spinach Orange Salad with Honey-Sesame Dressing
1/4 cup toasted almonds, chopped
6 cups baby spinach
2 oranges, peeled and sectioned
1 or 2 very thin slices of red onion, cut in half and broken apart
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
Arrange the spinach, orange slices and red onion on a platter.  Sprinkle with almonds on top.  Drizzle about 1/4 cup of the dressing and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Honey-Sesame Dressing
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons vegetable oil (or extra virgin olive oil)
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
Blend honey, vinegar, soy sauce and red pepper flakes in a food processor.  With the processor running, drizzle in the oils and keep the processor running a minute or so more to emulsify.  Unused dressing can be kept in the refrigerator for about two weeks.