Winter Citrus and Avocado Salad

It’s really hard to stay healthy during the holiday season when everyone is shoving cookies and eggnog down your throat. I’m obsessed with food so it’s really hard for me to say no to anything, which is why I find it extra important to create healthy recipes for myself to have at home during the week so I can find some level of balance in my life. With the whole romaine scare right now, it made me think of my favorite lettuce that I actually like better than romaine: little gem. Little gem is like a mini romaine lettuce, it’s more beautiful and has a lot more flavor, but it’s also a lot harder to find. So the other day when I walked into Eataly and they had purple little gem I was so frickin’ excited.

This salad combines winter citrus, little gem, avocado, radish, red onion, and tons of herbs to create a truly satisfying and healthy winter alternative. This is a great option to bring to potlucks or to whip out at a dinner party, especially because citrus is at it’s peak season in the winter.

As you guys know, I’ve just started my Youtube channel, so I’ve made a video that showcases exactly how to make this recipe. Hope you enjoy. In all seriousness though, let me know what you think in the comments below and if you like the video give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my page for new vids every Wednesday. Woo!

little gem salad

serves 4 ppl

ingredients:

• 2 heads little gem lettuce

• 1 naval orange

• 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced

• 1/2 avocado, cut into thin strips

• 1 purple radish, thinly sliced

• fennel fronds, mint leaves, basil leaves, celery leaves

• salt

• pepper

• 2 tsps champagne vinegar

• 4 tsps olive oil

• 1 tsp grainy mustard

steps:

wash lettuce in a bowl of cold water and pat dry

Lay the lettuce on a towel to dry and place another towel on top, lightly pressing down. 

Next, you’ll cut your orange, cut off each end, and running your knife down the sides, remove the bitter pith. Once all the pith is removes, cut into slices. 

For the dressing, combine 1 tsp grainy mustard, 2 tsp champagne vinegar, salt and pepper, and 4 tsp olive oil. Shake together, taste and set aside. 

When you’re plating your salad, it’s really a choose your own adventure experience. What I like to do is start with the lettuce, placing it all around the plate so it looks like it just fell there. sprinkle a little bit of salt on the lettuce. What this does is it opens up the cells of the lettuce so they taste more like lettuce, just trust me on this. After, a little bit of the dressing. 

Next up, the avocado, then the citrus, the radishes, red onion, more salt, the rest of the salad dressing, and then make it rain herbs. Damn, that’s one sexy salad.