Spinach Feta Blood Orange Salad
My grandmother used to have a house dress, house hair, and house shoes. She made no apologies for boiling her fresh vegetables half way to kingdom come. She sat with her Bible at every spare moment.
I… well, I have a house sweater. It’s big and grey with floppy sleeves and giant buttons. It’s just a house sweater, unless of course I decide that it can handle a quick trip to the store or a quick meet with a friend. It really should stay in the house, as beat up and unattractive as it is… but sometimes it’s just too warm and cozy to part with. I don’t even want to talk about introducing the house sweater to someone that you’re dating. That’s a whole other beast to tackle.
My grandmother would support my house sweater. She’d nod in quiet understanding. She’d also love that I have her Bible on my nightstand, and I read and reread all the bits she underlined in red pen. This salad? She would not understand. It’s entirely too fresh and crisp and… unboiled. I suppose that’s the difference between her Tennessee blood and my California living.
Blood oranges are here and I couldn’t be happier. Every orange is different. The red tinting can be subtle or totally bonkers. Beauty fruit. I’m so into it!
I combined sweet blood oranges with creamy avocado, salty feta cheese, and crunchy sunflower seeds.
Spinach too. Fully of flavor and health. On the real.
This is the sort of salad that you can eat and feel like you’re indulging in a good life. Not like you’re on a diet. Not like you’re depriving yourself of peanut butter cups. This salad is a treat in itself… and totally justify peanut butter cups for dessert.
This salad was inspired by a really lovely book. Tender by Nigel Slater. It’s like an encyclopedia for vegetables with gorgeous, simple, indulgent recipes for each vegetable. I love the photographs and recipe lay outs. Very laid back and personal, but beautifully intentional. The man knows has a gorgeous respect for food.
Thanks sister! Major gift!
This recipe is in paragraph form… that means take it easy and enjoy the process. Just go with it. Don’t have feta cheese? Try goat cheese crumbles. No sunflower seeds? Toasted walnuts would be lovely. No blood oranges? Grapefruit is the way to go!
Spinach Feta Blood Orange Salad
inspired by Tender
Spinach is beautifully matched with citrus and salty feta cheese.
For each person, portion about two handfuls of clean, baby spinach. Peel and thickly slice a blood orange, or whatever citrus you have on hand. Catch as much of the juice as you can and pour it back over the salad with a good drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of fresh cracked black pepper. Toss the spinach with oranges, sliced avocado, a hearty portion of feta cheese crumbles and sunflower seeds. Serve immediately and enjoy.
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Perfect! I will make this tonight with those fabulous Hasselback potatoes. I could just look through Tender for hours. I got the cookbook Vegetables from An Italian Garden as a Christmas gift and it reminded me of Tender…simple and beautiful.
This salad looks delicious! Great way to start the year!
Oh I LOVE Nigel Slater. Another of his is called the kitchen diaries, really beautiful book which features recipes in seasonal chronological order (for the UK that is anyway!) and I just love it. He writes in such a way that it’s not just a book to refer to, but also a book to take up to bed and just read for pleasure.. I feel the same way about the lovely Nigella Lawson’s food writing too. Happy New Year to you Joy, still loving the blog and now the podcasts…and yes sprinkles are not sprinkles they are DEFINITELY hundreds and thousands!!!
These photos are gorgeous! I have yet to actually try a blood orange for myself, but this salad makes me want some right now! Looks delicious!
Beautiful-looking salad! I have never tried a blood orange because I have yet to run into one around here in my small West TN town, but they always look so stunning in pictures.
Your grandmother sounds lovely and I’m glad you have her well-worn Bible. Very Cool.
I made a salad just like this last night! Well, really the only common ingredient was the blood oranges. In my case I subbed parsley/bibb mix (heavy on the parsley) for your spinach, manchego shavers instead of feta, and walnuts for your sunflower seeds. And I felt the need to add some honey crisp apple slices. So many versions are now popping into my head. Bleu and pecan and arugula, oh my! As long as there’s blood orange I’m happy. Thanks for sharing your greatness.
What a sweet little post! My grandmother also had a house dress and I rock the heck out of the coziest house sweater that my husband lovingly refers to as the “Chevy” because it strongly resembles the enormous gray thing Clark Griswald dons at his family Christmas dinner. I’d be lost without it ; )
This makes me wish it was summer again!
YUM! I can’t wait to make this. It reminds me of the mandarin orange salad that the Magic Pan used to serve… You are not alone with your house sweater. I have a hand-me-down plaid flannel shirt that I refer to as the “jacket-y thing”. So comfy & home-y.
Wishing you a lovely and blessed new year, Joy!
What a beautiful looking salad!!! Happy New Year!
Definitely need to grab this book. I’m trying to do more of a vegetarian/possibly but probably not vegan thing during the week and am in need of good ideas! I’ve already torn through Plenty but haven’t gotten around to grabbing this book yet. thanks for the inspiration :).
Love this salad, so fresh!!!
I wish i could have a glimpse of that sweater! ^^
OMG. We must be on the same wave length! For my New Year’s produce list includes blood oranges, fennel, and prosciutto salad. I also just bought bloomsdale spinach and feta from the farmer’s market this morn! If you roast brussels sprouts next then that would be crazy! Delicious post by the way.
This looks amazing! Just one question… why would someone NOT have feta in their fridge?
This salad left me salivating. But I’m thousands of miles away from any fresh spinach. Next year I’m going to have to try growing some in cold frames, because really, this salad is too much for my Minnesota heart to handle.
This is totally up my alley. Maybe I’ll try avocado again.
This salad is so vibrant and looks delicious!
Thanks, also, for recommending this Nigel Slater book.
Happy new year, Joy!
This looks so healthy and delicious. You mentioning Nigel Slater just made me wonder whether you’ve come across Nigella Lawson before? She’s also british… not very healthy, but she also has some delicious recipes and is just really really cool :)
That book is out of hand! Your sister is obviously a person of taste. Now I want that book- I’m always uninspired when it comes to preparing veggies. Now where’s that avocado….
Beautiful, fresh salad. So lovely, it does seem like an indulgence. Pardon my typing this comment while wearing my jammies (my version of a house dress on days I don’t have to venture out to work); pardon my living in the middle of “boil your veggies to kingdom come” land. I still love this and want to make it soon. Thanks for sharing.
Girl, I’m loving this post. I have that sweater and I heart the looks of the book and colorful salad.
my new year’s resolution was to learn how to cook. here i am at 47, celebrating one day at a time. and i come across your spinach with blood orange salad. what a motivation! keep on blogging!
I definitely just got this book for Christmas from my girlfriend’s mother and made a roasted broccoli recipe inspired by Nigel’s book! We are on the same wave length, Joy!
Love your face,
Kasey
What a vibrant, beautiful and tasty salad!
This story makes me smile as my husband’s mother loves to cook vegetables beyond recognition to the point that when I met my husband he refused to eat vegetables. Well several years and crisp vegetables later he has made his peace with the vegetable family.
By the way, I think that the blood orange/fetta combination is superb!
Like you and many others, I got Tender for the holidays, too. I’m in love with the book, and was totally eyeing this salad. Love your beautiful rendition Joy.
Love it-Grandma, the Bible and Tennessee…oh there was a salad recipe?
Oh wow this looks scrumptious. I need some blood orange in my life…like stat.
Love avocado & love spinach, will try this also love your new banner very cute.
This looks like a salad I would actually enjoy eating!
It’s true, I really do feel healthier just looking at these photos! I love salads that combine winter fruits with savory vegetables and cheeses. They just burst with flavor while still being light and healthy. Thanks for the inspiration!
mmm perfect inspiration for tomorrows dinner! Paired with my savory crepes, I cant wait!
i wholeheartedly agree with the virtues of a house sweater, bibles, and this salad. amazing!
My grandma had a house dress too! I had what I guess you could call a pair of house sweatpants. But my sister made me throw them out right before I got married and swear that I would never allow my husband to see them, ever! I guess she was looking out for me and my self esteem. :)
being greek and all, i have to say i will try this at home :)
It’s recipes like this, where I can taste them from the photos, that will have me moving from the UK back to Australia faster than missing my friends will! Fresh and tangy and crunchy and ohhhh….
This is such a beautiful salad. I would spend nearly as much time staring at it as I would eating it!
Looks beautiful and goes well with my intention to eat more colourful salads this month!
Thanks.
Perfect! I got some spinach and blood oranges in my box this week, and also grabbed some goat feta so I could make this. Now tell me what to do with one turnip.
At this rate, you’ll have me engaged by the end of 2012… I always turn to you for inspiration for what to feed my vegetarian boyfriend when he visits me at grad school. You make me look like a culinary goddess compared to his usual habit of ordering pizza or sub sandwiches for delivery as his dinner.
Yum – just had this for lunch, with clementine slices and goat cheese substitutions! DELICIOUS, but doesn’t avocado make everything yummier??
ACK! I’m certain boiled vegetables are what led to me surviving solely on chicken fingers from 6-19. I didn’t know vegetables could taste good until I started dating my husband and he was like, “You don’t have to cook that within an inch of it’s life. Oh, and salt is your friend.” I’m originally from TN and I’m wondering, is that just a rule of the south? Boil and under-season? Viva la fresh veg!
Gorgeous, Joy! I love the hidden mysteries of the blood orange, too. Looks like you found some extra pretty ones.
Those photos are so wonderfully colorful and bright… I think I’m in love with blood oranges after reading this post. Sometimes all you really need to make everything all right is a wonderful large and filling salad.
Just looking at this salad makes me feel healthier! Love the vibrant colours, and the tangy, creamy combo must be fantastic with the orange, feta and avocado. Will definitely stop drinking eggnog and make this salad. Thanks!
Love the new banner! I’m so happy it’s citrus season.
Pretty salad, no doubt delicious… but back to your sweater. I think I have the same one… my man asked me recently, “Did you say you found a replacement for that sweater this Christmas?” me: “Ah, no.” him: “oh…” Just because the thread let go on my elbow and it looks like it might disintegrate at any moment is no reason to replace my beloved grey sweater with big buttons!
Your salad looks wonderfully refreshing!
Just had a serving of this for dinner. So so good! Replaced spinach by corn salad, sunflower seeds by cashews and blood orange by grapefruit as this was what I had on hand. Thanks a lot for the inspiration.
Totally inspired by the pictures. Definitely going to add Blood Oranges to my weekend shopping list!