Cooking the Chronicle – Jan 24
This week’s recipe (“Refreshing citrus salad,” Jan 24) was well-timed with a visit from my sister-in-law and her family. Whenever they make it to Pittsburgh from Tampa, they make a delicious salad with hearts of palm, avocado, tomatoes, corn, and red onion, so I already had three cans of hearts of palm in my cabinet. I never really cook with hearts of palm, so this felt serendipitous and I pulled one can aside to use for this recipe.
What a great salad for the winter months when incredible citrus is in season. I found beautiful Sumo oranges to use, a grapefruit, and I grabbed a pomelo to add in, just for fun, because it looked so beautiful. You could really use any kind of citrus in this salad, just make sure they’re ripe and juicy because it really is the main driver of the flavor in the dressing.
Speaking of the dressing, it’s a light bright addition to the salad. It relies mainly on the juice from your segmented citrus, a bit of olive oil, and salt and pepper. You could easily amp up the flavor overall by substituting something like a pre-made poppyseed dressing.
I highly recommend adding the avocado and pistachios to the salad for some textural differences. The avocado adds richness and makes the salad feel hearty, and the pistachios add a needed crunch. We served this salad for dinner with baked salmon, which turned a side dish into a main. It’s everything you want in a dish—filling, fresh, and easy to make.
This is also the ideal recipe for a toddler. I prepped all the ingredients and put them into individual bowls. She hysterically assembled the dish, which means dumping the toppings in piles on top of the lettuce. No harm—you really can’t go wrong with any combination of these ingredients.
I will absolutely be adding this to my rotation of easy dishes that look beautiful on the dinner table!
