Avocado and Grapefruit Salad

Is it late winter, or early spring? Grapefruits are a winter fruit, so we’ll go with late winter. Yesterday I decided that I wanted this salad for dinner, along with some chicken Milanese. The recipe is Ina Garten, but I have made a few modifications. I always forget how good this is, which is REALLY good, and perfect with crispy fried chicken breasts, with arugula on top, lightly dressed in the same vinaigrette, with shaved Parmesan on top. I liked dinner so much, I think I may make it again next week.

In case you’re interested, here is my version of the salad recipe. Ina’s is here. I’ve made a few small changes, because hers has too much salt and doesn’t yield enough grapefruit for me.

Avocado Grapefruit Salad

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
• Big pinch kosher salt (seemed like less than a teaspoon, but to your taste…you can always put more in, but difficult to take it out)
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste, see salt comment
• 1/2 cup good olive oil (I like olive oil from California, after reading years ago that most of the imported stuff is fake or mixed fake)
• 4 ripe Hass avocados
• 5 large red grapefruits (Ina’s recipe says two, but that’s hardly any)

Directions

Slice the peel off of the grapefruits, removing the white pith, then cut between the membranes to release the grapefruit segments. From 5 grapefruits, you can squeeze the remaining membranes and get the needed 1/4 cup of grapefruit juice. If not, supplement with lemon juice, which is what Ina’s recipe calls for anyway.

Place the mustard, grapefruit juice, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until the vinaigrette is emulsified.

Cut the avocados into pretty slices or dice like I did above, then toss in the vinaigrette to prevent them from turning brown. Arrange with the grapefruit however you like, and drizzle with vinaigrette. If you’re so inclined, sprinkle with a little sea salt and black pepper.