This is one of my favorite side salads ever. It’s so versatile. Today, I ate it with pasta and meatballs, but it can easily become a meal in itself with a piece of grilled chicken or salmon. It’s relatively light without a protein, but keep in mind it is meant to be on the side of something else, not its own meal. It isn’t filling enough to constitute as a meal.
It is, however, an incredibly healthy addition to any meal. It’s full of vitamin C from the arugula and the orange, and healthy fats from olive oil and avocado.
The Ingredients –
Here are my tips and tricks for preparing the ingredients, which is arguably the most important part of cooking: (got to get the mise en place down in order to work efficiently in the kitchen if you know what I mean).
Segmenting the Orange –
Segmenting the orange is probably the hardest part of making this salad, which is saying something because segmenting citrus is way easier than it looks. Start by vertically slicing the orange in half, down from where the orange was hanging on the tree. Then, place the orange half down on a cutting board and, using a filet knife, carve the peel and pith off of the actual orange flesh. Then, once that is removed, gently wiggle your knife down on each direction of the membrane in order to loosen the orange segment from the half. If you’ve done it correctly, it should slide right out. If you’re still confused, you should use this article, it’s what taught me how to segment an orange.
Prepping the Other Vegetables –
To cut the onion, I recommend using the classic dicing method to ensure the pieces are as small as possible. Nobody wants to bite into a huge chunk of red onion. In small bits, however, they provide a nice flavor to the salad.
You can peel the cucumber if you want, however, I wouldn’t recommend it. I actually like the taste and texture the cucumber peel has! Aside from that, they are amazing for your skin and eyes, and contain crazy amounts of vitamin K and beta-carotene, it can also help boost your immune system!
When it comes to making the vinaigrette, the easiest method is adding it all to a small tupperware and shaking it. This mixes the oil and vinegar. As you can see in this photo, it’s also an easy way to visualize the ratios.
Shaking the container produces the most homogenous salad dressing you can make without using a food processor! And even then, it can separate after. This way, if there’s extra vinaigrette, you can just store it in the fridge. Store the container, take it out later, and shake it again for another salad. And if it seperates, you can just shake it up again!
So overall, this salad can easily be thrown together. It takes under 30 minutes, and feel free to add whatever you want to personalize it. If you don’t like onion, celery can also add another crunch.
Happy cooking people!!!
Citrus and Arugula Side Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- 4 cups arugula
- 2 medium sized oranges (try to find cara cara oranges if you can, but if not, I would use either a blood orange or use a grapefruit)
- 1/4 one red onion
- 2 whole endives
- 1/2 cucumber (or use 2 mini cucumbers)
- 1 avocado
for the dressing:
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp dried parsley
- 1.5 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tbsp honey
- 2 tsp salt
Instructions
- First, prep the ingredients. Segment the orange, cut the cucumbers into thin half slices, cut the endives, slice the avocado, and chop the red onion into fine pieces. Add the arugula to a large bowl.
- Make the dressing. In a tight tupperware container, add the dressing ingredients and make sure the lid is on really tight. Then, for about one minute, shake the container as hard as you can to emulsify the oil and create a thicker vinaigrette.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the arugula, dressing, cucumber, onion, and endive. Toss until evenly coated in dressing.
- Then, add the avocado and citrus segments to the rest of the salad and GENTLY toss until combined. Be careful, because it can be really easy to break the avocado and crush the orange segments. Try to keep them as whole as possible.
- Serve and enjoy!