Blood Orange Salad with Belgian Endive and Nuts

One of my favorite things about our Northern Hemisphere winter are the blood oranges. Their sweet flavor with notes of raspberry is a delicious highlight to brighten up the cold days. Aside from using them for sweet dishes, I love incorporating them in salads. This blood orange salad with Belgian endive, toasted nuts, and pickles is the perfect winter salad. The sweetness pairs nicely with the bitterness from endives. This salad is a great starter to brighten up a nice winter dinner. For some reason, this batch of blood oranges did not look bloody at all. Well, this salad was delicious, nevertheless!

Ingredients for making Blood Orange Salad with Endive, Nuts

• Belgian endives
• Blood oranges
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Mulberries
• Almonds
• Optional: Dates
• Optional: Pickled radish

The two stars of this dish are the Belgian endives and blood oranges. The Belgian endive is deliciously crunchy, slightly bitter, and has just an overall fresh flavor. Blood oranges add sweetness, fruity taste, and acidity to this salad. To have some contrast in texture, I like to include dried mulberries and freshly toasted almonds. I added balsamic vinegar, which pairs nicely with blood orange, for additional acidity. Some extra virgin olive oil, salt, and pepper round everything off. Also, I added some pickled radish I still had on hand for an optional kick. The salad will taste delicious without it as well! Lastly, I included some delicious juicy Medjool dates.

How to make this Blood Orange Salad with Endive and Nuts

Making this salad with endive and blood orange is super simple. It involves only a little preparation, and then the ingredients can be combined and served right on the plate.

Preparing the Ingredients:

Firstly, chop the almonds and give them a gentle toast. Toasting them elevates the flavor. I just chopped them roughly. I think the texture from the nuts works well in this salad!

Next, it’s time to peel the blood oranges. Peeling blood oranges can be a bit of work as they are harder to peel than regular oranges. I’d recommend cutting off their bottom on one side so they stand up straight before cutting off their peel with a knife.

Today, I went the extra mile to remove all their skin. I wanted to have the pure flesh for the nicest mouthfeel. I sliced each of the blood oranges in slices and cut out the flesh using a small, sharp knife. It yielded these delicious, beautiful little blood orange triangles. You can skip this step if you want to make this salad quicker. It will taste great with simple slices as well!

With the nuts and blood oranges out of the way, we can take care of the Belgian endives. Firstly, give them a thorough wash. If the outer leaves look old already, discard them. Lastly, Cut off the tough stem where the leaves are attached and peel off one layer at a time.

I like to serve the salad with the whole endive leaves. You can use them as little spoons to scoop up the delicious blood oranges and nuts! You can chop the endives up if you want to go for a different presentation of this salad, 

Finally, I sliced some pickled radishes into thin stripes and diced my dates. That’s all there is to this simple winter salad. Let’s get into plating it!

Plating the Salad:

Plating this delicious blood orange salad involves only assorting the different components on the plate and dressing them with our delicious condiments. Firstly, I added the crunchy Belgian endive leaves on the plate in a nice pattern. Next, I dressed tablespoons full of blood orange around it. I garnished the endives with stripes of pickled radishes. I topped the salad with the toasted almonds nuts, dates, and mulberries. Finally, I gave it a drizzle of high-quality extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a sprinkle of salt, and a crack of black pepper.

I like having the whole leaves of Belgian endive in there. You can use them as little spoons for all the other delicious toppings. It’s a fun way to enjoy this salad with your hands.

And that’s all there is to it. This blood orange salad is delicious on a plate! This easy salad looks like a work of modern art, and it’s the perfect light starter to brighten up a cold winter’s day.

Pro Tip:

If you want to make this salad extra flavourful, you can make a dressing out of olive oil and the juice of a blood orange.

I hope you enjoyed this simple blood orange salad with Belgian endive. Let me know what you think in the comments below!)

Some Recipe Suggestions:

• Tabbouleh
• Radicchio salad with blood orange
• Blood orange olive oil cake with rosemary
• Fattoush
• Beet salad with grapes and walnuts
• Panzanella
• Dandelion salad

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