Blood Orange and Mixed Greens Salad with blood orange vinaigrette

I love roaming my local Farmers’ Market sampling and smelling the best the local growers have to offer.  Fresh produce, breads, nuts and cheeses entice you to taste everything.  Most of the time I know what’s going offered; fantastic dandelion greens and pea shoots from one booth and every kind of tomato imaginable from another.  But sometimes I spot something that I wasn’t expecting.  As I walked down to the end of the first row of booths, I small stand was set up with nothing but some ugly looking oranges and bottles of a red juice.  Immediately I knew what they were, blood oranges.  Normally we don’t see them here in California for another 2 months, so I was pleasantly surprised to come across them.

I wasn’t going to let an opportunity like this pass by.  I rumaged through the pile looking for the ugliest ones I could find as they tend to be sweeter.  I grabbed three of them for $0 .75 and was off to get some mixed greens and arugula.  The perfect dinner salad.  Enjoy!

This is what they look like.  Look for ones with blemishes and leave the perfect looking ones for the uninformed.

I sliced one of them in half.  Look at the amazing color.

I juiced both halves which yielded exactly 3 tablespoons.

In a small bowl I whisked together the 3 tablespoons juice, 2 1/2 tablespoons grapeseed oil, 1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar, 5 twists of the pepper mill, tiny pinch of sea salt and 1/4 teaspoon sugar for the vinaigrette and set aside.

I cut the top and bottom of an orange and sliced down the sides to remove the skin.  I almost didn’t want to cut it anymore-just too good to look at.

Using a pairing knife I cut next to the membrane on each segment to remove them.  I diced up 1/4 of an avocado, cut 1 thin slice of sweet onion and gathered the rest on my fixings which included 2 teaspoons sliced toasted almonds, 1 tablespoon of crumbled blue cheese, and 1 handful each of spring mix and arugula.  I added 2 tablespoons of dressing along with the avocado in a large bowl and whisked to combine.  I added the greens, onion and blue cheese then tossed to combine.  I placed this on plate and topped with orange segments and almonds.

And this was the outcome.  A wonderful, light salad.  Enjoy!