I am a sucker for beauty on a plate and this is it…

A beautiful colour explosion of pinks and orange…just like an Ibiza sunset…

This is one of my all time favourite salads because it delivers on all flavour profiles: sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami (savoury). You get a fresh perfume, anise-like hit from the fennel, bittiness from the chicory, sweet citrus of orange, salty creamy feta, sour dressing and a gorgeous savoury crunch of pistachio dukkah.

Obviously blood oranges have a short season so normal orange will do perfectly well. This salad is a dream on its own of with grilled fish or roasted aubergines.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

4 blood oranges
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt & pepper
3 heads of red chicory (pull leaves apart)
1 bulb fennel, very thinly sliced
1 large red onion, thinly sliced
200g Sheep feta cheese (or vegan feta is really good these days)
1 tbsp. dukkah (now quite readily available to buy or see my dukkah recipe)
2tbsp pistachios, chopped

Method

1. Slice the ends of the oranges so you have a flat surface to work with. Then with a sharp knife remove the skin and pith, slice horizontally and set aside. Mix together the vinegar, oil and season with salt and pepper.
2. Arrange the chicory, fennel on a plate and add the orange, red onion, crumble over the feta and drizzle with the dressing. Scatter over the pistachios and dukkah. Beauty made!