Eden of My Blog: Wanderings and Wonderings not only kicked off our new food challenge this spring, but she graciously bowed to our gentle pressure to make her selection the salad she had posted on the food forum. We had all drooled over it at the time.
One of the things I love about salads are how forgiving they are. You can mess with them - a lot. And get away with it. It's not like baking where the formula is the secret to your success.
Eden's recipe is delightfully non-specific. Her recommended ingredients were:
Blood oranges - Mixed greens of your choice - Candied pecans - Dried cranberries - Berries of your choice - Feta cheese - dressing of your choice.
Here's my take on the ingredients:
The blood oranges I had were so dark purple, they were almost black. Beautiful, but a bit past their prime.
They didn't quite have the orangy zing they needed to carry the salad as the star ingredient. But I had some absolutely lucious strawberries. So, I made them the focal point and used only a few pieces of the oranges. Then I used the juice in my dressing.
My dressing was blood orange juice, lemon juice, raspberry balsamic, & olive oil with only fresh cracked pepper for seasoning. I didn't add a grain of salt to either salad or dressing.
Here's a picture of the finished salad.
Comments (7)
I'm so excited about these
salad days! This one looks so wonderful. I'm going to be trying all the recipes on salads. Just great for the summer months. Love this one and your photos are super.
Posted by Barb Cabot | April 27, 2009 8:29 AM
Posted on April 27, 2009 08:29
Strawberries are just perfect right now for this salad. The blood oranges in my market also looked a bit tired, so I was glad I went with the CaraCara, but you cannot match that color in the blood orange.
Posted by Marcia | April 27, 2009 1:47 PM
Posted on April 27, 2009 13:47
Looks fabulously delicious. I need to post mine... such a slow poke... thats me...
Posted by Eden | April 28, 2009 9:29 AM
Posted on April 28, 2009 09:29
My favorite salad...and this one looks exceptional! Looking at this photo makes me want to sit outside St. Louis al fresco tomorrow and enjoy some refreshing crisp greens!
Deborah responds: Debbie, meet you at noon on the patio at Bar Italia. :grin:
Posted by debbie | April 28, 2009 10:15 PM
Posted on April 28, 2009 22:15
Deborah, your photos are so beautiful! I've been reading blogs tonight and there are several salads posted...I'm making this one for tomorrow at lunch!
Thank you for sharing it!
Posted by Brenda | April 30, 2009 8:19 PM
Posted on April 30, 2009 20:19
Great photos of the salad. LOved this one.
Posted by Cindy Ruth | April 30, 2009 11:01 PM
Posted on April 30, 2009 23:01
Beautiful!
Posted by Amy | May 3, 2009 5:25 AM
Posted on May 3, 2009 05:25