Beautiful Blood Orange Salad with Poppyseed Dressing

This vibrant salad is the feel-good solution to all your grey skies and Wintertime blues. Loaded with vitamins, nutrients, antioxidants and some of the rainbow’s most stunning offerings, this Winter Citrus Blood Orange Salad is ready to star as a zesty opening act or is just as happy to take center stage for the colorful main event. Costarring the celebrity-status salad is a creamy Poppyseed Dressing - certainly, a duo you won’t want to miss!

Growing Frond of Going Green

This Blood Orange Salad can be made with whatever greens you are most fond of. Personally, we love the peppery bite of arugula paired with the mild, tender leaves of baby spinach - but feel free to follow your heart. We’ve made several wonderful renditions of this salad with various greens. Kale, escarole, radicchio and frisée, for instance, all work well - every one of them delicious and bringing their own flavors and textures. Fresh fennel, however, should not be missed! The fresh-from-the-ground bulb adds a bright, crisp, crunch and just a hint of sweet anise flavor. Meanwhile, the feathery green fennel fronds are mild, delicate and simply add a touch of lace-like elegance to the bowl.

Blood Orange Salad & A-peel-ing Accoutrements

This salad is all about showcasing Winter’s heartbeat: juicy, vibrant citrus fruits. For this Winter Citrus Salad we are using both the common navel orange and the tart, ruby-colored blood orange. These juicy fruits strike the perfect juxtaposition of natural sugars and unique flavors while balancing bitter undertones. We recommend opting for the heaviest fruit you can find, to ensure optimal ripeness. (Heavier citrus equates to jucier, sweeter, more-mature fruit.) To prepare as pictured, use a sharp knife to remove either ends of the citrus fruit. Then, stand the orange up on one of it’s cut ends and carefully slice away the remaining peel by sliding the knife along the curvature of the fruit. Take care to remove all of the fruit’s white pith, but not too much of the juicy flesh. Finally, turn the fruit on it’s side and slice to reveal spirited stars of colorful fruit. 

Supporting Roles

This Blood Orange Salad with creamy Poppyseed Dressing includes thinly-shaved red onion and a dusting of crushed pistachio. The red onion adds a desirable sharp bite and a gorgeous hint of purple. Meanwhile, the pistachio comes through with a smidge of richness and a salty crunch. Here, we pulsed the pistachios in a spice grinder for just a moment to create a range of pistachio sizes - all the way from an almost-intact nut to a fine, salty pistachio powder that could make it’s way into every bite. 

Poppyseed Polka-Dots

This quick and easy poppyseed salad dressing is the perfect companion for our Blood Orange Salad. With just two minutes and a handful of common ingredients you, too, can be shaking your way into luscious poppyseed drizzles. We used yogurt as the base for this dressing making it tangy, thick and creamy. White wine vinegar, honey and coarse-ground mustard make for a sweet and savory dressing that compliments the citrus and greens just so. The namesake, however, is all thanks to the almighty poppyseed adding a speckle of intrigue, mildly nutty flavors and an oh-so-satisfying crackle of texture. 

Entree it up!

This Blood Orange Salad is spectacular on it’s own and one of our favorite ways to kickstart the first course. That being said - don’t let us stop you from making this salad a full-on meal. This salad can make for a stellar lunch or can pair with a variety of proteins for a more-filling main event. The addition of grilled chicken, shrimp or avocado would all be lovely additions. Moreover, a pan-seared fillet of salmon compliments the blood orange especially well. 

Share Your Success!

This Winter season salad Poppyseed Dressing is certainly worthy of the spotlight! We hope you enjoy this citrusy star as much as we do. When this recipe makes its way to your table, be sure to drop us a star rating! And, as always, mention @foodworthfeed or tag #foodworthfeed in your Instagram posts and stories! We’d love to feature you on social! We love having a seat at your table, you’ll always have one at ours. Cheers!

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