Citrus Salad

When I was younger, I was very, very good at playing “pretend.”

I’m actually still fairly good at it, although I don’t have very many people who are still willing to play with me. When I was younger, though, I was the oldest of four kids very close in age, which, as any oldest kid knows, makes you the “boss” for a good long 2-3 years, and I was fairly awesome and orchestrating large and complicated games of “pretend.”

Mostly, we played “school,” or “pioneers in the Wild West.” Sometimes we played “tame the Indian,” but that was only fun if you got to be the Indian, climbing all over things and acting like a savage… not if you got to be the cowgirl taming the Indian. (Sidebar: yes, I realize that my games were not terribly politically correct, but I’m pretty happy that I wasn’t politically aware at seven. If you’re pissed about my games… I don’t know. Flame me in the comments or something. I’ll probably ignore you. I wish I was still politically unaware enough to feel OK playing tame the Indian, because it was an awesome game.)

Anyway, this is all to say, I need you to play pretend with me today. I need you to pretend that this picture does not look like:

a) a radioactive salad,

b) a salad from a 1960s cookbook,

c) extremely unappetizing.

OK? Can you pretend that with me? Good.

Ignore the fluorescent endive… come back to the words… listen to me… trust me…

This is an awesome salad.

Whenever I make salad, I put vinaigrette on it. I don’t have the time or energy to make another kind of dressing, and I don’t have the inclination or fridge space to have bottled dressing on hand. With me, it’s vinaigrette or nothing.

But sometimes, vinaigrette can be overwhelmingly acidic, which is where this comes in. Instead of a traditional acid source like vinegar (duh) or pure lemon juice, this salad takes advantage of the fruit segments tossed with the endive and feta cheese for a slightly sweet and not at all overpowering dressing.

In the picture above–wait… no… don’t scroll back up: focus on me–I used an orange, but I’ve done this with grapefruit and with a combination of both as well. Basically, you want to supreme the fruit over the bowl you’re going to use to prepare the final salad. If you don’t know how to supreme fruit, here’s a nice video tutorial.

All the juice and fruit segments will be collected in the salad bowl, which you can then use to make the rest of your dressing. If you decide to use a grapefruit, you probably don’t need any more acid, but if you’re using only orange, you might want to add a bit of lemon juice for just a hint of a pucker factor.

And that’s it! Please, ignore the photo. Just make the salad. You won’t regret it.

Citrus Salad

1 grapefruit, supremed
1 orange, supremed
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
salt and pepper
3-4 endives, halved and sliced
2 oz. feta or goat’s cheese, crumbled

In the bottom of a salad bowl, supreme the fruit. To the juice, add the olive oil, mustard, salt and pepper. Stir with a fork to combine, taking care not to break up the fruit.

When ready to serve the salad, add the endive and toss with the dressing and fruit to coat. Top with the crumbled cheese and extra pepper if you like. Serve immediately.