This is one COLORFUL salad. Fennel citrus salad with buttery avocados, tangy feta, and a sweet onion vinaigrette is just about the best thing I’ve tasted this year. The sweet onion dressing adds a nice complexity to the dish. I first had this salad on my birthday last year. Albeit, it was a leaf-less version of the salad with wedges of avocado, segmented citrus fruit, and dripping, generous portions of creamy burrata cheese, finished with the vinaigrette, a delicate drizzle of Meyer lemon infused olive oil, and a few fennel fronds. If it sounds heavenly, let me assure you, it was. To make a homemade version, We’ll shave the fennel bulb on a mandolin, segment the fresh grapefruit, blood oranges, cara cara oranges, and navel orange. Then load it all on a bed of peppery arugula. If you’re interested in that dressing, let me tell you all about it. It’s your typically vinaigrette ingredients, like, olive oil, dijon mustard, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, and we’ll add a minced sweet vidalia onion to the mix. Blend it all up and what you’re left with it the most delicious dressing that pairs beautifully with the ingredients in the fennel citrus salad.
Ingredients for Fennel Citrus Salad
Fennel Bulb: We’ll slice through the fennel bulb and slice it thinly on a mandolin. I like to hold on to some of the fennel fronds so that you can use it as a garnish on the salad.Avocados: We’ll slice up the avocados and top them on the salad at the end. Make sure to get slightly ripe avocados so that they are buttery yet still a bit firm.Citrus fruit: You can use any citrus that you like for this recipe. Pomelo, melogold, clementines, tangerines, grapefruit, navel, cara cara oranges, and blood oranges are all great options. Just be sure to remove the peel and segment the fruit with a paring knife, taking care to remove all of the white pith. The flesh is all you need for the salad! The white pith will make the salad bitter, so make sure you don’t leave much of it on the fruit.Arugula or Spring Mix: I like to use peppery arugula for the base of this salad. Of course, you could serve this salad like the restaurant I had it at and forgo the base all together. But I do like what arugula brings to the plate here. Baby kale would make decent substitute if you didn’t have arugula or spring mix on hand. You could also add in a handful of fresh mint leaves. I love what mint does to citrus fruit!Cheese: The restaurant I had this at used burrata cheese, and though I loved how that turned out, I’ll be honest, I don’t typically keep balls of burrata at home. For this reason, I like using feta cheese crumbles instead. It’s a staple in my refrigerator and it’s something more cooks are likely to have in their fridge too. Goat cheese would work well also.Olive Oil: You’ll need olive oil for the dressing. Extra virgin olive oil would work best since we aren’t cooking the dressing.Dijon mustard: Mustard plays a very critical role in a vinaigrette. It is essentially the emulsifier that allows the oil and vinegar ingredients to mix together and remain in harmony.White Wine Vinegar: You can also use champagne vinegar if you’d like.Lemon Juice: Freshly squeezed works best here!Honey or Sugar: This is the ingredient that adds sweetness to the vinaigrette. I like to use honey, but sugar, agave or maple work too! We add this ingredient to bring out the natural sweetness of the vidalia onion.Sweet Onion: You’ll need a couple tablespoons of minced onion for this. Make sure to use a sweet onion so that it isn’t as harsh in the dressing.
How to Make Avocado Fennel Citrus Salad
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