Raw kale, red cabbage and blood orange salad with hazelnuts and a toasted sesame oil and ginger vinaigrette
Citrus, the saving grace of winter
Published originally on my blog on 17 February 2016
The saving grace of winter is definitely citrus fruits. They provide not only much needed vitamin C for our body, but they also give brightness, flavor, vibrancy and color —oh glorious color— to our sweet and savory dishes.
I’ve been cooking with all sorts of citrus fruits the past month or so (exhibit number one was the meringues with blood oranges I shared with you last week) and plan on keep doing so until the end of April. No one can stop me. One of the ways I’ve been using the season’s bounty of citrus is by adding them raw to salads. I know, predictable, not very original, yet wonderful in every possible way.
Sometimes, when I post salad recipes here on the blog, I wonder what you think about them. I mean, does anyone need a recipe for a salad? Isn’t it something we all make instinctively? Isn’t it all a matter of taste and preference and what-do-I-have-in-the-fridge-that-I-don’t-want-to-go-to-waste kind of thing? I guess it is.
On the other hand, however, I tend to view it differently; I enjoy seeing salads on blogs, magazines and cookbooks. I am reminded of a forgotten ingredient, of a way to pair it with something that I hadn’t had in a while. I get inspired to try something new, to combine known ingredients in a different way. That’s what cooking is all about, really. Trying new things out for size. It’s not always about reinventing the wheel, but polishing it a bit or oiling its rusty parts.
So when I say you must try this salad, it’s because I myself by eating it was reminded about what a wonderful combination blood oranges and red cabbage is; what fresh ginger and toasted sesame oil can do to an otherwise simple vinaigrette; how kale can be the perfect medium to join these ingredients together and how sweet it is this time of year, when it is at its prime. I was reminded and awakened to all this and I hope, in some way, it will inspire you to try something new.
It is full of textures, and the flavor is bright and zingy and all that it promises to be; simple and scrumptious. It wakes up your taste buds with crunchy, squeaky cabbage, crispy, toasted nuts, chewy kale that fills you up with its robust, bittersweet flavor; with the glistening blood oranges bursting with juices and flavor —acidity, bitterness and sweetness at the same time; with the vinaigrette that’s lively and bright, with toasty aroma and flavor from the sesame oil, zing from the vinegar and blood orange zest that adds texture apart from flavor, subtle sweetness from the honey that ties the whole thing together and last but not least, pepperiness and zest from the fresh ginger. Perfect winter salad, if you ask me. Try it, and I’d love to know how you liked it.
