Blood Orange, Fennel, Avocado, and Arugula Salad

May 15, 2024 /

Maya took me out for a lovely lunch on Saturday to celebrate Mother’s Day. We ordered a few items and shared them. We had a salad, some calamari, and tuna tartare. Maya doesn’t eat meat, but she does occasionally have seafood, and tuna tartare and calamari are definitely favorites. The salad was blood oranges, fennel, arugula, and feta cheese. Everything was delicious, but the salad was our favorite item. To drink, I had a lovely crisp Sauvignon Blanc, and she had her drink of choice, gin and tonic.

I liked the salad enough that I decided to make it at home last night, and because everything is better with avocados, I added those. I think some toasted nuts would have been nice, but I didn’t add any. We had it for dinner with breaded chicken cutlets, and Maya had fake crispy chick’n tenders. This is very similar to a Chicken Milanese that I sometimes make, but I liked the addition of the fennel.

Blood Orange, Fennel, Avocado, and Arugula Salad

Ingredients

  • 5 blood oranges
  • 1 small bulb fennel, fronds removed
  • 2 avocados
  • 3 or 4 handfuls of baby arugula
  • Feta cheese (from a square, the already crumbled stuff is no good)
  • 2 Tbsp Champagne vinegar
  • 6 Tbsp Olive oil (I am partial to olive oil from California)
  • 1/2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
  • Salt and Pepper

Directions

  1. For the dressing, add the vinegar, olive oil, mustard, and some salt and pepper to the bottom of a large salad bowl. Whisk until emulsified, and add the juice of 1/2 blood orange.
  2. Thinly slice the fennel, peel and slice 4 oranges, and slice the avocados. Toss the fennel and then the arugula in the dressing to coat well, then add the avocados and oranges. Once everything is well coated, add some feta cheese (as much as you fancy), and toss again. If you find yourself with 1/2 of a blood orange sitting there, why not squeeze it over your salad for good measure. Serve immediately.

12 Comments

  • Margaret

    May 15, 2024 at 9:18 am

    I love blood oranges and feta so I think I would like the salad! I’m not quite sure what fennel tastes like. A bit like black licorice? That sounds like a lovely lunch out with Maya.

    • J

      May 15, 2024 at 10:32 am

      Yes, it has a bit of a licorace taste to it. It also goes by the name of anise at the grocery store. I love it.

  • Ally Bean

    May 17, 2024 at 11:26 am

    I’m not familiar with the ways of fennel, so I’ll ask what may be a dumb question: I understand how to cut off the fronds, but do I then rinse/soak the bulb before I slice it. Or do I slice it then rinse/soak those slices in water, maybe use the salad spinner to dry them? The salad sounds delicious, btw.

    • J

      May 18, 2024 at 9:50 am

      I think that’s a very reasonable question! I rinsed off the bulb, then sliced thinly. You could rinse again if it looked dirty at all, but mine didn’t, so I didn’t. I don’t know why a salad spinner wouldn’t work, seems like a good solution to me.

  • Ernie

    May 18, 2024 at 8:26 pm

    The lunch out sounds delightful. I had one of the best meals ever when I was in Dallas last month. I meant to look back at the menu to see if I could try to recreate it. I have not done that yet, so thanks for the reminder. The salad looks really good.

    • J

      May 19, 2024 at 11:44 am

      Oh, I hope you are able to recreate your wonderful meal! Sometimes I eat a restaurant meal that inspires me, and other times the food is too complicated and I vow to just enjoy it there.

  • Daria

    May 19, 2024 at 10:48 am

    That’s some amazing ingredients!! Where would I purchase blood oranges in NJ?…. has to be something like Whole Foods… Overall, YUMMM

    • J

      May 19, 2024 at 11:43 am

      Yes, I think Whole Foods would be a good bet. If you can’t find blood oranges, regular navel oranges would work, just not quite as sweet or pretty.