In the realm of Mediterranean cuisine, a vibrant and flavorful salad takes center stage, inviting food enthusiasts to embark on a culinary journey. This is not just any ordinary salad; it is a symphony of textures and tastes, a harmonious blend of sweet and savory, with a touch of tangy zest. The La Zucca Magica's Orange and Olive Salad is a testament to the magic that can be created when fresh, wholesome ingredients come together.
This delightful salad showcases the finest seasonal oranges, their juicy segments bursting with sweet citrusy notes. The oranges are carefully selected for their perfect balance of sweetness and acidity, ensuring each bite is a refreshing burst of flavor. Complementing the oranges are succulent olives, their briny, slightly bitter taste adding a delightful contrast. The olives are cured to perfection, preserving their distinctive flavor and texture.
But the magic doesn't stop there. The salad is further enriched with a medley of fresh herbs, each contributing its unique aromatic touch. Basil, with its sweet and slightly peppery notes, adds a refreshing lift. Oregano, with its earthy, slightly minty flavor, brings a touch of complexity. And chives, with their delicate oniony flavor, add a subtle sharpness.
The dressing, a harmonious blend of olive oil, vinegar, honey, and Dijon mustard, ties all the elements together. The olive oil, with its fruity aroma and velvety texture, provides a rich base. The vinegar adds a touch of acidity, balancing the sweetness of the oranges and the saltiness of the olives. The honey, with its golden sweetness, adds a touch of indulgence. And the Dijon mustard, with its sharp, tangy flavor, adds a layer of complexity.
Garnished with a sprinkle of crunchy walnuts and crumbled feta cheese, this salad becomes a feast for the senses. The walnuts add a nutty flavor and a satisfying crunch, while the feta cheese adds a creamy, salty touch. Together, these ingredients create a symphony of flavors and textures that will leave you craving for more.
So, if you're seeking a vibrant, flavorful, and healthy salad that showcases the bounty of the Mediterranean, look no further than the La Zucca Magica's Orange and Olive Salad. With its delightful blend of sweet, savory, and tangy flavors, this salad is sure to become a favorite in your kitchen.
LA ZUCCA MAGICA'S ORANGE AND OLIVE SALAD
Provided by Mark Bittman
Categories easy, quick, weekday, salads and dressings, side dish
Time 20m
Yield 4 servings
Number Of Ingredients 5
Steps:
- In a food processor, combine olives and thyme, if using, with a bit of olive oil. Pulse machine once or twice, then turn it on and add remaining olive oil rather quickly; you want this purée on the rough side. Thin with more olive oil if necessary. (You can refrigerate this for up to a month.)
- Layer 3 or 4 orange slices on each plate, drizzle with a little more olive oil, top with a tablespoon of olive purée and sprinkle with a few fennel seeds.
SICILIAN-STYLE CITRUS SALAD
Winter is the season when many kinds of citrus fruits suddenly appear. For this savory fruit salad, a mixture of navel, blood and Cara Cara oranges and a small grapefruit make a colorful display. It's fine to use just one kind of orange, blood oranges being the classic example. Thinly sliced fennel, celery and red onion add a tasty bit of crunch. The salad is dressed assertively with oil and vinegar, and scattered with olives and flaky sea salt.
Provided by David Tanis
Categories brunch, dinner, easy, lunch, salads and dressings, appetizer, side dish
Time 30m
Yield 6 servings
Number Of Ingredients 13
Steps:
- Make the vinaigrette: Whisk together olive oil and vinegar in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. It should be tart but not over-vinegary. Taste and add a little more olive oil if necessary.
- To peel the citrus fruit, use a small serrated knife. First, cut off a thin slice of peel from the top and bottom of the orange, so it can sit flat and securely on the cutting board. Use a sawing motion to take off the peel, cutting from top to bottom, following the curve of the fruit. Remove only the peel and white pith, not the flesh of the orange. It should now be perfectly spherical and naked. Peel remaining oranges and grapefruit in this fashion.
- Carefully slice peeled citrus crosswise. Arrange slices on a large serving platter in a random pattern, letting them overlap a bit here and there. Scatter onion, fennel and celery over top. Dot the surface with olives. Surround with salad leaves, if using.
- Whisk vinaigrette, and spoon evenly over the salad. Sprinkle lightly with flaky salt and serve.
Nutrition Facts : @context http, Calories 186, UnsaturatedFat 7 grams, Carbohydrate 28 grams, Fat 9 grams, Fiber 6 grams, Protein 3 grams, SaturatedFat 1 gram, Sodium 653 milligrams, Sugar 20 grams
LA ZUCCA MAGICA'S ORANGE AND OLIVE SALAD
The combination of sweet, juicy, tart (and cold) orange and bitter, fatty, slightly warmer tapenade is fantastic. Don't omit the fennel seeds, which add another dimension of flavor and texture - just super. And by all means use the common navel orange - it's in season, and it seems, to me, just perfect.
Provided by Mark Bittman
Categories easy, quick, salads and dressings
Time 20m
Yield 4 servings
Number Of Ingredients 5
Steps:
- In a food processor, combine olives and thyme, if using, with a bit of olive oil. Pulse machine once or twice, then turn it on and add remaining olive oil rather quickly; you want this purée on the rough side. Thin with more olive oil if necessary. (You can refrigerate this for up to a month.)
- Layer 3 or 4 orange slices on each plate, drizzle with a little more olive oil, top with a tablespoon of olive purée and sprinkle with a few fennel seeds. Serve.
ORANGE AND OLIVE SALAD
I wanted to be sure to include a few words about fruit salads-not sweet fruit cocktails in heavy syrup, but savory salads made like other composed salads. These may consist of fresh fruit alone, or fresh fruit combined with lettuces or other salad greens, with nuts and cheese often added for richness and texture. When there are no greens available and I desperately want something fresh, fruit salads are refreshing alternatives, either at the beginning or the end of a meal. Figs, apples, pears, pomegranates, persimmons, and almost all of the citrus fruits make good salads, with or without greens. All these fruits of fall and winter have an affinity for hearty chicories such as escarole, radicchio, and curly endive. Among my favorite fruit salads are an orange salad with black olives; avocado slices and grapefruit sections; persimmons or Asian pears with nuts and balsamic vinegar; and orange slices with marinated beets. Oranges and other citrus fruits need to be peeled and sectioned for a salad. When skinning the fruit, you want to remove all the outer peel and the membranes that enclose the sections, exposing the juicy fruit inside. You will need a small, sharp knife to do this. First, slice off the top and bottom of each fruit, slicing deeply enough to expose the inner flesh. Then, position your knife blade at the top where the fruit and peel meet, and carefully cut down following the contours of the fruit. Continue around the fruit, cutting from top to bottom, rotating the orange, until all the peel and membrane is removed. Trim away any remaining white bits of membrane. You can then slice the orange crosswise or cut between the membranes to free the individual sections. Apples and pears can be peeled or not, but to avoid oxidation, which turns the cut surfaces brown, they should be prepared just before serving. Persimmons must be peeled; this can be done in advance, but keep them covered so they don't dry out. Fruit salads are usually dressed very simply, sometimes with nothing more than a drizzle of olive oil or vinegar, or with a vinaigrette made of some citrus juice and a touch of vinegar, a little chopped shallot, salt, pepper, and olive oil.
Yield makes 4 servings
Number Of Ingredients 7
Steps:
- Remove the peel and membrane, exposing the juicy flesh, of: 4 small or 3 medium oranges.
- Slice into 1/4-inch-thick round pinwheels and arrange them on a plate. Cut in half lengthwise, peel, and slice thin: 1 small red onion.
- Onion slices cut horizontally are prettier than slices cut lengthwise. If the onions are particularly strong, soak them in ice water for 5 to 10 minutes. Drain them well before adding to the salad. Make a vinaigrette. Mix together: 2 tablespoons orange juice, 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar, Salt and fresh-ground black pepper.
- Whisk in: 2 tablespoons olive oil.
- Taste and adjust with more salt and vinegar as needed. Scatter the onion slices over the oranges and spoon the vinaigrette over. Garnish with: Small black olives (4 or 5 per person).
- I prefer to serve the olives unpitted to preserve their integrity and beauty, but be sure to tell your friends so they know the pits are there. Use niçoise olives if you can find them, but any briny black olive will do (large ones can be coarsely chopped, if you like).
ORANGE AND OLIVE SALAD
Temple oranges are shiny, spongy to the touch and deeply rutted with pores, like a cartoonist's idea of an orange. The temple orange, which arrives at stores in the winter, is worth seeking out. Start with the peel, which is thin and tight to the pulp yet zippers off as cleanly as that of the tangerine. The segments have little pith, and though their skin is delicate, they separate neatly, sparing your shirt. Pop a sector, fat and pulpy, into your mouth, and the thing just bursts. Temples are far juicier than most oranges, with a tarter, more complex taste. This is a recipe, adapted from "Jane Grigson's Fruit Book" (Atheneum, 1982), that showcases their sweetness, set off by bitter greens, salty olives and black pepper.
Provided by Patrick Farrell
Categories brunch, dinner, easy, lunch, weekday, salads and dressings, appetizer, side dish
Time 20m
Yield 6 servings
Number Of Ingredients 6
Steps:
- Grate the zest of 2 oranges. Mix it with the oil, vinegar and a bit of salt.
- Peel the remaining oranges, slice into thin disks (perpendicular to the segment seams) and spread out in a single layer on a large dish. Pour the dressing over them. Grind pepper until it covers them like a thin layer of sand. Leave for 2 hours or longer in a cool place.
- Separate the chicory or endive leaves, rinse and dry them. Tear them up, place in large salad bowl. Lift the oranges from the dressing and place atop the greens, breaking up the disks into quarters. Sprinkle the olives on top, then a bit of the dressing. Toss lightly, add more dressing to taste and serve immediately.
Nutrition Facts : @context http, Calories 165, UnsaturatedFat 9 grams, Carbohydrate 18 grams, Fat 11 grams, Fiber 5 grams, Protein 2 grams, SaturatedFat 1 gram, Sodium 414 milligrams, Sugar 12 grams
ORANGE AND OLIVE SALAD
Eat heart-smart with this Mediterranean-style salad. From Prevention® Healthy Cooking.
Provided by Betty Crocker Kitchens
Categories Side Dish
Time 35m
Yield 4
Number Of Ingredients 9
Steps:
- With sharp knife, peel oranges, cutting off most, but not all, of white pith. Cut oranges in thin crosswise slices and arrange on a platter. Scatter the radishes, red onion and olives over oranges. Sprinkle with pepper.
- In small cup, mix oil, vinegar, salt and oregano with a fork. Spoon evenly over oranges. Cover with plastic wrap; let stand at least 15 minutes before serving.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 130, Carbohydrate 21 g, Cholesterol 0 mg, Fat 1, Fiber 4 g, Protein 1 g, SaturatedFat 1/2 g, ServingSize 1 Serving, Sodium 220 mg, Sugar 14 g, TransFat 0 g
Tips:
- Choose the right oranges: Use navel oranges for a sweeter flavor and a thinner rind that's easier to peel.
- Use a sharp knife: To avoid tearing the orange segments, use a sharp knife to cut them out.
- Don't overdress the salad: A simple dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper is all you need to let the flavors of the oranges, olives, and fennel shine through.
- Serve immediately: This salad is best enjoyed fresh, so serve it immediately after making it.
Conclusion:
This Orange and Olive Salad is a refreshing and flavorful side dish or light lunch that's perfect for summer. The combination of sweet oranges, salty olives, and aromatic fennel is sure to please everyone at your table. With its simple ingredients and easy preparation, this salad is a great way to enjoy the flavors of the season.
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