My parents visited Sicily last fall (lucky dogs!) and brought back a wonderful recipe to accompany any main dish at dinner. I've riffed on the combination of blood oranges, mint, and red onion and added my own spin. The results? Shockingly good in color and in flavor!
For me the perfect salad is crucial to any supper. The lighter notes can take center stage as the base of the meal or they can play in contrast to something heavier. I'm constantly searching for a slight variation in greens, fruits, nuts, and seeds. This blood orange salad takes all of my favorite ingredients and throws them into an unapologetic, vibrant dish that will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility. It's almost too pretty to eat. Almost.
This recipe relies heavily on the quality of all the fresh ingredients, so be sure to have the freshest citrus, pistachios and a small bit of Sheep's feta (or whatever soft cheese you prefer) to punctuate each bite. There's nothing worse than finding your pistachios have gone soft from being in the cupboard too long (this has happened to me!). So be sure to start with the best of the best, and enjoy this salad!

Sicilian–Inspired Blood Orange Salad
Serves 4
For the salad:
3 Cara Cara oranges, cut into segments
6 blood oranges, cut into segments
1/4 of a large red onion, cut as thinly as possible
1 bunch of mint, julienned and a few leaves torn
1/4 cup sheep's milk feta
For the dressing:
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1/3 cup pistachios, lightly crushed
salt and pepper to taste
Assemble all the citrus segments in a large bowl and mix in onions. Set aside.
In a small skillet, heat the olive oil on medium–high. Add the cumin seeds and cook until the cumin seeds pop slightly and a lovely fragrance emits from the pan. Add vinegar to the pan and swirl to mix. Season with salt and pepper and toss all over the citrus. Mix in pistachios. When plating, add mint and pistachios to the tops of each portion.
Related: Gorgeous Recipe: Blood Orange Crostatas
(Images: Leela Cyd Ross)
Kart Serving Tray b...

Comments (11)
Beautiful and sounds so good!
So gorgeous and vivid!
hmmm... I will cook this as soon as possible I get decent blood oranges!
What can I substitute for the Cara Cara oranges if I can't find them this late in the season?
I wish I had this right now.
Made it tonight. Despite the tutorial, peeling and cutting membrane-free segments is a fussy, time-consuming task, during which I muttered more than once, "this had better taste fabulous." Well, it did. Despite the prep and my skepticism about the inclusion of cumin seeds, I followed the recipe as written, and it has to be one of the best salads evah! I am only hoping it will not suffer too much when blood and cara cara oranges are unavailable and we substitute other citrus, because we don't want to wait until they're in season again to eat this.
Looks good, but being born and raised sicilian, the cheese in the recipe of the salad was probably something like shredded tuma, or pecorino (sheep's milk cheeses) NOT feta, which is a Greek cheese, not italian :)
I keep all my nuts in the freezer, which keeps them extra crunchy and fresh.
I've made a very similar salad with segmented red grapefruit, and it works fabulously. Citrus + pistachios + feta = salad heaven. I'll usually segment over a bowl to catch all the juice, then just mix that with olive oil for my vinaigrette, but I'm liking the idea of marinating red onion with the citrus... and cumin? Mmm.
I made this for dinner tonight and am not sure that the vinaigrette is necessary. Once I poured it over the oranges, I basically had orange soup. I think the salad would be better with a drizzle of olive oil. Also, this recipe is classified as "quick" and it's not. Segmenting seven oranges takes a while. Overall, I like the flavor combination but don't feel the result was worth the effort.
i think heart of palm would be really nice in this salad!