What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had for dinner?
Tonight I had:
Mung beans tossed in butter, salt, and pepper. Mung beans. Yea… not ideal.
Frozen corn, made unfrozen in boiling water… tossed with butter, salt, and pepper.
A flour tortilla… while standing over my desk, looking glossy-eyed at my massive to-do list.
A sprig of parsley. I dunno. Because it was green and there on the counter.
Water from my water bottle… followed by a hearty slug of bourbon, poured over tiny ice cubes.
… I’m also really bad at re-filling the ice tray. Future husband, I’m sorry. I love you. I hope you hate ice.
And, for dessert, a frozen chocolate cupcake. I’m about 7 seconds away from going to grab another cupcake from the freezer. Believe that.
This is what I eat when left to my own devices. Clearly, I should not be left alone. I’m not sure how much longer I can survive like this… I’m a complete weirdo. Someone hold my hand and make me cook you dinner… that’s the only way I eat like a regular person.
These avocados? See how nicely sliced they are? This is the sign that I’m cooking for others, and not just standing in my kitchen eating tortillas.
I like fruit in my salad. I especially like citrus. I super especially like citrus if it’s sliced all fancylike.
Segmented. Totally classy, right?
Oranges are easy to segment. Once the peel is stripped, you just have to slice in between the natural orange segment markers/ skin bits/ pith marks… what the word I’m looking for?
I made dressing too!
The dressing is inspired by my favorite mason jar/ good olive oil/ fresh cracked pepper/ and Tracy’s mom.
Salad dressing. Shaken. It’s cathartic. Cats pay no attention.
But wait! Are my hands starting to look suspiciously 30 years old? Don’t answer that. (Yea… they kinda are) ((Don’t agree with that… thanks)).
This salad is simple, bright, and completely adaptable. Try grapefruit instead of orange segments. Peaches? Yes. Strawberries? Ok!
Arugula instead of Romaine? Do that? Did you say spinach? I like the way you think.
It’s salad. No biggie. Make it your own… then serve it to others.
I’d also like to distract you with the crazy delicious bread I made to go along with this salad. It has strawberries on it, and I can’t wait to tell you about it on Wednesday.
Look at this spread! Wine and bourbon and bread and such.
Avocado Orange Salad
serves 4 to 6 people
inspired by Shutterbean and yummy salady things
For the Salad:
1 large head of Romaine lettuce
1 Navel orange, segmented
2 ripe avocados, sliced
a handful of fresh, chopped flat leaf parsley is also nice
For the Dressing:
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 small garlic clove, finely minced
2 teaspoons honey
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 egg yolk (if you don’t want to use a raw egg, 1 tablespoon of Greek yogurt is great!)
1/2 cup olive oil
salt and coarse ground black pepper to taste
To prepare the salad:
Coarsely dice and rinse the Romaine lettuce. Place in a large platter. Segment the orange by first slicing off about 1/2-inch of the bottom and top. Slice down the sides of the orange, cutting through all of the pith to reveal the orange flesh. At an angle, slice in between the natural orange segments. A clean orange slice should pop out. Easy! Halve and slice or dice the avocado. Sprinkle oranges segments and avocado slices over the lettuce.
To prepare the dressing:
Combine all ingredients except the olive oil, salt, and pepper in a jar with a sealing lid. Tighten the lid and give the ingredients a good shake. Remove the lid and add the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Replace the lid and shake until dressing is well blended and emulsified. Drizzle over salad. Dressing will last, sealed in the refrigerator, for 3 or 4 days.
128 Responses
30 is young … What are you talking about ?
I will be making this salad…just you wait and see…
I miss you, I’ve been on a vacation and I totally miss you..
i wanted something super summery, super light and refreshing, and super fast for dinner .. so i whipped this together and it was delish!! avocados and oranges are two of my favs. love love loveee the dressing. oh, and i also added a handful of pine nuts to add a tiny crunch. very nom :)
We had the salad last night with warm bread and grilled chicken and it was brilliant! Even though it meant a week long wait for the silly avocados to ripen. oO But hey, it made it all the better to finally prepare it after all the anticipation. I love the dressing.
I used natural yogurt instead of the egg and it worked out lovely and smooth with a bit of a crunch from radishes I had growing in the garden and baby gem lettuce.
Or radish! For peppery crunch.
I looked at this and thought, ‘Oh that would be so nice with rocket! What’s arugula?’ Thanks google for explaining they’re different names for the same thing. Yum!
Take it from a slightly older woman living in the South (think lots of sun). Sunscreen on your hands — every day. Also on your upper chest, neck. Those are the two places that show your age the first.
Made this salad for a dinner party tonight. SO yummy. It was a big hit. Thanks for the great recipe. :)
Ah, darling Joy…those are NOT 30 year old hands…they are busy hands! Only hands that do nothing all day remain teen-like into adulthood. Hands that love, and work, and play hard? They are sturdy, capable, wonderful, WARM hands! :)
(From the 40 + year old who secretly is afraid her hands might be beginning
to look like 45 year old hands… )
I’ve always called the things between the the segments ‘membranes’. The strawberry bread looks fabulous and I can’t wait to try it!
Oh, and the fancy pants word for cutting oranges like that is “supremes”. It makes me think of the girl group The Supremes, which reminds me of Dreamgirls, and how they had those orange dresses, which makes me think of the beautiful little orange segments. Or supremes.
Lunch was romaine with mango chunks and blackberries, red wine vinegar and poppy seeds. Yesterday was with apples, toasted slivered almonds and sesame seeds, vinegar, and a few flecks of red pepper. I love summer :).
I had the same 30-year-old-hands revelation. Its depressing. I’m going to make this salad to help myself get over this fact.
My grandma used to make an avocado and grapefruit salad for all family occasions. I miss it.
Just wanted to let you know that I have been eating this salad for 3 days in a row… fantabulous! Thank you lots and lots for sharing!
Made the salad last night to accompany husbands birthday dinner. WOW!! What a home run! Thanks so much for this recipe!
awesome!!
dear joy,
you are so funny. your blog is one of my favorites.
xo,
robyn
okay woman that salad was delicious. that vinigarette? it makes me want to punch my mother (okay i may or may not be listening to your podcast right. now. and you just said that) so delicious. keep up the good work.
This sounds great! I recently got some Himalayan pink salt and organic peppercorns from Sustainable Sourcing and I’ll have to try them out in this recipe. Oh, and I feel much better that I”m not the only one who has been known to eat strange things to dinner!
omg just last night i decided to make a salad of romaine, avocado, and grapefruit for my family… great minds think alike…
your evening meal. typical scenario where the cobbler’s son has no shoes. you’re good girl!
just FYI your hands look great and so does this salad (especially the dressing!!) YES!
Yea=yay, without the accompanying exclamation of excitement, or yes, as in a bunch old men sitting around a committee table voting on non-essential clauses.
Yeah= yah, “ah” as in the beginning of the word apple. Usually a “filler” word at the beginning or end of a sentence, it’s actually an informal variant of “yes.”
Incidentally, yay is most commonly used as a variant for “yea” but has not been accepted as a formal word . . . yet; it’s only slang.
I don’t mean that to be bitchy . . . I find it so commonly mistaken I try to inform people. I went around for years saying and writing a similar pair of words incorrectly and no one told me; I was mortified when I learned I had been using them wrong over and over.
At least you eat ‘real’ food when you’re on your own…I eat cereal and wine….classy. Hah!
Joy, Joy, Joy,
Your hands are beautiful; creating beautiful works of art via your gift with both food and communication. I can’t stop grinning when I read your blogs BUT……………………….I have a question for you.
How is the letter writing campaign coming along? Able to fit it into the daily grind? I’m pullin’ for ya girlfriend.
p.s. As for the hands (if you’re really worried) lotion, lotion, lotion my grandmother would always say. Oh…………. and sunblock.
thank you! the letter writing is going well. i get a few done every day! i’m loving it!
Well then goshdarn I’m sure lookin’ forward to mine. I appreciate that you took the time out to answer my question Miss Joy. Thank you muchly. (big ‘ole
grin on my face)
Hmmm…have never had an avacado or a taste of bourbon.
I’m faced with the dilemma of which to try first, Joy.
I love the exercise you can get with making your own dressing, too!
I am the same way with eating! With a strange working schedule sometimes I will realize that I will have gone 3 or 4 days without a proper meal. Yikes!
…the salad looks so good! Maybe I will get motivated to get to the store and make that tomorrow. Yum!
I’m currently packing everything I own to put it in storage in Melbourne, while I’m off having a fabulous time in Barcelona….which means it’s official Clean Out The Freezer Before Moving time….which means I just had half a packet of edamame and three pear and ginger muffins for lunch. All of it seasoned with dust and memories!
(And the only way I’ll eat citrus fruit is if it’s segmented – cos I’m a Lady.)
..n..**
oh citrus in a salad, yummo!
Often if I’m left to my own devices I’ll eat something like one slice of tomato, or a handful of marshmallows for dinner. I’m lazy like that. But we had apple and pear crumble for dinner the other night, which is fairly unusual. Heck yes!
I know quite a few dudes that would be willing overlook ice cube tray neglect in a gal that loves bourbon. Just sayin’.
Anyhow, I think when you cut the orange up fancy like that it’s called “supreming”, no? Not that I’ve ever supremed an orange, actually.
I eat weird things more often than not. My husband has learned to roll with it. :) This salad looks delicious- love avocados and citrus!
Ahh.. I do so love cooking for others. I’m living the bachelorette lifestyle for the week, and I miss the feeding of the man almost as much as the man himself. :)
Oh Joy… I always love the anecdotes of your life! This salad looks super yummy
You inspired my dinner tonight! ‘Twas delicious. I did something that turned out tasty. Because I didn’t have all of the ingredients for the dressing and because I was feeling a little wild , I took a scoop (to be interpreted however you like )of hummus and mixed it with two scoops of salsa and voila salsa-humm dressing!
:) Happy day to you.
You’re wearing TOMS! Obviously you knew that.
This salad looks delicious. I will eat it with my eyes for now!
sufficient arch support during orange segmenting sessions is very important! ps- mason jars RULE
It was all Joy all day at our house. Banana bread, shrimp and grits and this salad. This was my favorite! Tastes like Summer! I think I gained 10 lbs. Thanks for the great recipes and inspiring me to return to the kitchen. With our not so newborn it has been many months of Ramen and corn dogs but not today…
Simple. Yummy. Really like the ingredient list for the dressing and will definitely have to try it in the hopes that THIS time I won’t create a salad fail!
Thanks always for being witty and bringing delicious things to my computer screen.
I have been living on bars lately-and not the good kind. My life can currently be summed up as a giant Kashi bar mixed with the Trader Joe’s low fat blueberry cereal bars…I also only cook nicely for company….
Always looking for new salads to incorporate avocado… I can’t get enough of it! This is beautiful. And sometimes I stand in the kitchen with the fridge door open eating tortillas until I figure out what’s for dinner. It’s brain food I tell ya.
I do the random, multi-course meals more often than I’d like to admit, but I think it makes life interesting! It also makes me appreciate “real” meals that much more!
I love the looks of that salad- bright, fresh, summery, and no need to turn on the oven or stove to make it! Perfect lazy summer evening real meal! WIN! =)
I can’t wait to hear about that crazy delicious looking bread. Strawberries? num, num!!! Everything looks so refreshing, summery and tasty! And no worries, I’m similar to you in that I forget to make regular meals sometimes….if it’s just me I’m probably either munching on popcorn or nachos
the bread, the bread, my kingdom for the bread!!
This salad looks delicious, but I have to admit, I’m more excited for the coming bread recipe.
What can I say? I’m a carb-a-holic! ;]
when i am alone- cereal, cold milk, totally barefoot and slinky pajamas and a awfully short skirt that is too.. i hate to say it but ‘slutty’ in a way to wear outside. truth.
guests? oh my oh my. bring on the avocado and fancy pasta dishes and uh sweet potato fries… just ignore the gaping bowl of kettle corn in the living room. ignore it.
by the way, bacherlorette is SOO getting on my nerves. and i dance to kesha and gaga when i’m alone. i’m so random. :Ol
I had frozen yogurt for dinner last night. And pancakes for lunch. But that is what being a single girl is all about! You can eat whatever you want whenever you want. Holla sister!
Avocados are miracle fruits (vegetables??) I typically like them hidden in things but I’ve only eaten them raw once. Perhaps it’s time to try again?
This my kind of cooking.
craziness! just made a baby spinach & cherry salad with a maple balsamic vinaigrette, tis the salad season- totally agree with you on the fruit in the salad, its a must!
Yes!! I have all the ingredients to make this in my fridge! I love it when that happens :) This salad is going to be on the menu for dinner tonight!
I love the combination of avocado and orange, so bright and delicious and fantastic. And when do we get to know about that bread? It looks like something I would like to put in my face.
Lately I’ve been loving a lot of things with citrus too :) especially lemon! Mmm
I have to say that your hands rock! Well used…for making all sorts of wonderful stuff. If you didn’t have those hands…well…you’d have no hands…and that might be weird – and make it quite difficult to bake.
I love any salad that involves avocados. And seriously cannot wait for that bread post! I need recipes for real, grown up meals that suck me into making them because my husband travels 50% of the year (seriously, yuck) and I have a tortilla eating habit when I’m alone too. Maybe you should come over for dinner?
hahaha “Mung beans tossed in butter, salt, and pepper. Mung beans. Yea… not ideal“ I have chickpeas tossed in coconut oil and salt at least once a week. Hits the spot, as weird as it may be.
Just wanted to say I love your blog, and what you say about “what I eat when left to my own devices. Clearly, I should not be left alone.” I can totally relate! And love it!!! Love your recipes!!! :)
I have the same affliction. When my fiance is away I eat popcorn or cereal or green beans or corn for dinner. Or occasionally I decide to behave like a normalish human being and make a BLT on an english muffin or homemade pizza. The pizza only happened because I won’t be home with the fiance gets home and I wanted to do something nice so it is sitting in the fridge waiting to be re-heated. Otherwise, I’m kind of a mess!
Find a future husband who also likes to cook and you’re golden! That’s one of my favorite things about my fiance… he cooks, he cleans, he feeds the dog. <3
i just moved to michigan last week… avocados and california are so, so far away now! i need this salad…and the wine and bourbon too, for good measure. also, segmented citrus is totes classy.
last night i had canned chickpeas, roasted asparagus, and a glass of wine. but your dinner for others looks lovely (and i hope that by others you mean cute boys. or at least one cute boy).
also now i’m staring at my hands and wondering if they look 30…
I eat weird stuff for dinner all the time (it’s a byproduct of living alone)
This salad looks wonderful. I have some leftover citrus shrimp that would be lovely with it!!!
Tonight, salad and shrimp…
Oooh! I can’t wait for the bread recipe so I can have this meal! the bread looks like a twist on Shutterbean’s Strawberry Bruschetta which is completely awesome too! And this avocado salad looks amazing, I’ve been craving avocado!!
we should teach a class on orange segmenting.
totally!
I agree… cooking for one is the pits. The minute I have an excuse to make a meal for even just one other person, the class and style skyrockets. :) This salad looks tasty. I wouldn’t mind some now except that I don’t really have any of those ingredients on hand. Time for a trip to the farmer’s market!
Doesn’t everyone eat like this when they are alone? Grazing….definitely grazing on whatever comes into view and holds even a slight appeal. Salad looks delish.
I am so the same way. I will stand in my kitchen, eating saltine after saltine. Sometimes a sleeve of saltines is the best dinner. (I am sure my mother would say otherwise.) And oh my goodness, that salad looks delicious. And that bread looks divine as well. Do we really have to wait until Wednesday?
I definately do the same thing sometimes, because sometimes (not always) cooking for one is depressing.
btw…I LOVE the new header!
I just love the way you enjoy life, you’re so inspiring!
Cupcakes, Bourbon, pretty nice ^^ The salad is great because fresh!
And I also wanted to add that I absolutely love your last picture, it looks out of time, and delicious.
I eat the strangest things when left to my own devices. Good thing my husband keeps me on the straight & narrow…..ha.
Is the word you’re looking for, supreming the orange? Pretty sure that’s what it’s called. My grandma taught me how to do that for fruit salad.
Frozen cupcakes…whaaa? I’ve never had one, but now I have the urge to bake just to then freeze and eat. Tell me more!
The last pic made me feel like eating pizza (mebbe its because im looking at the small screen of my phone), thats what the strawberry bread looks like.. Yep, will come back on wed to check out the strawberry bread!
looks and sounds amazing. i love segmented oranges in salad! oh and the word for the skin bits is membrane :)
also, if you get a refrigerator with a built-in ice maker, then you dont’ have to apologize to your husband for never refilling the ice cube tray.
that sounds terrific – i don’t think i’ve ever eaten avocado with orange before?!? the other day i made a salad with fresh cherries, pecans, and feta – i’ve never combined those flavors before but it worked really well:
https://theactorsdiet.wordpress.com/2011/06/04/life-is-just-a-box-of-cherries/
I need that salad for breakfast! YUM!
I need to try that dressing! It would be good with lime, lemon or grapefruit juice as well. I have some grapefruits to use so I think I may try it for lunch. Thanks :)
The whole spread looks so happy! I say yes to the salad and can’t wait to read about the strawberry bread. I am currently being held hostage by an army of salad greens in my garden, so will make your citrus salad as attempt to weaken their forces.
I ate a dry, cold corn tortilla, a handful of granola, half a banana and a chocolate macaron for breakfast. Washed down with coffee and served with cat snuggles.
I can’t be left alone.
strawberries on bread……can’t wait!
Its nice to know that even though you can cook a delicious meal that sometimes tortillas and cupcakes are what happening tonight! If you’re interested in a good read “Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant” is hilarious and totally talks about people who eat weird things when alone. My dinner was garbanzo beans and broccoli (so I can pretend it was healthy) doused in cheese! The salad looks amazing, is it weird that in my head fruit and salads have never gone together? Don’t ask me about how fruit salad fits into the picture. But the colors look amazing! Hope you have a great day!
great post joy! and i can’t wait until wednesday when you tell us about that bread!
Just wanted to tell you that I’ve listened to the first 3 episodes on HomeFries and I love them! I’ve been listening while I clean lettuce from my garden. The fact that I made it through 3 episodes, all while cleaning it, shows both that I have TONS of lettuce growing and that I’m anal about washing it. Anyway, great podcasts!
The avocados look so yummy. You should’ve had one of those mashed up in the tortilla for dinner! :-)
I don’t think your dinner sounds weird at all. A tortilla with beans and corns sounds healthy and delicious. The salad certainly is, and it sounds wonderful! The salad dressing sounds right up my alley! I’ll try it on my coleslaw the next time I make it using tangerine juice because we always have tangerine juice in the house. I’ll make it with yogurt instead of egg.
That’s interesting that you would speak in slashes. Me…well…I’ll never be making an acceptance speech but if I did, I’d be speaking in ellipsis points. :)
I’m not sure I can wait for your scrumptious looking strawberry goat cheese bread! Don’t you have any idea how it’s calling to me? I have to make it! I’ll have to find a way to distract myself. Okay…I’m going to the pool and playing tennis. Maybe I’ll be able to get that image of your wonderful looking bread out of my head by the time I’m done! :)
Oh…bourbon and cupcakes for dessert…that’s perfect! :)
This is such a lovely and simple salad; avocados and citrus always sound yummy to me!
Nice post..I’m not even interested in recipes/cooking but I enjoy reading this stuff…good photography too..hands look fine!
Find a man who has a fridge with an icemaker. Or is willing to buy one :-)
I love your brain!
My thoughts exactly……the kind you don’t need to even open the door. You deserve it! :)
My kinda salad (and really, that’s how I eat dinner too when the husband is away… I make the kid something that’s good for him and then I pick in and around things I have lying around).
Looking forward to the strawberry bread!
You just made me feel much better about eating an ungodly amount of cheesy bread and a bag of M&Ms for dinner last night. I can’t be left to my own devices either.
You never told us…Who were cooking for?
This looks like one of my go-to salads, I usually use grapefruit. When my husband is gone my eating habits go to hell. Snack attack. I usually eat popcorn and drink wine.
can i just say that your stonewashed yellow TOMS are. hawt. kayseeyoulaterbyyyyye
I have never thought to put avocado and oranges together. What a great combination!
All bets are off when you are dining alone!
Love avocado and orange together, and my favorite lettuce, romaine. nice.
This sounds great! Totally different from the salads I’m used to making
And I don’t eat like a regular person when I’m alone either :)
I have some mung beans in my pantry that I’ve been dying to use, but then I take a look at my meat and potatoes husband and realize I might be pushing it. The orange-avocado salad, on the other hand, he’d love that!
Love the ingredients shoot. Tried to do that once, with flour and….it got messy. Reaaaaal messy. Funny how the cat has its back turned to you!!!
I’m the same way about dinners! I eat random weird things unless someones coming over. Sometimes I invite people over just so I make a real dinner. :)
Lol, you r funny Joy. That thing you’ve called “weird dinner” is a quite common practice by mortals all around the world every now and then (and I proudly include myself in that list).
I wrote my first baking post this weekend, yay for me!!! :)
fromcaliwlove.blogspot.com
What a perfectly balanced summer salad- sweet, citrus, and creamy all in one on top of crisp lettuce!
Nice orange segments. Very well done…I tell my child and hubs to just eat the segment parts, the fibrous part, b/c I am not patient enough to segment them. I’d rather spend my precious kitchen time making…chocolate desserts:)
Or that salad. Looks great and I make my own salad dressing 99% of the time, too. Shaken in old glass jars is my method, also.
Thanks for the bread recipe tease :)
Love this salad. I make a similar one with sliced strawberries along with the oranges… and I also toast pine nuts into it. The dressing I make is similar too but I like the addition of garlic and vinegar in yours. Perfect spring salad! I could eat a vat of it.. and then a frozen cupcake!!!
Hey, there’s nothing wrong with eating weird/having 30 year old looking hands/ and speaking in slash marks.
This salad dressing sounds delicious. I can hardly wait to read about that fab looking bread!
Love this! Love your recipes! Can’t wait to hear about the bread with strawberries :)
Membranes…
Just got hooked on your blog.
Thank you.
This salad looks wonderful. I love the citrus in salad.
Hey girl, I know this isn’t the right place for this reply but I just had to say I love your podcast! It really makes me giggle. I listen to it whilst I’m walking my dog. Can I make a request for a podcast about peanut butter? Anything about it. Just.. peanut butter. Or malted milk. Or both.
Hurry and make more podcasts!
PS I tried to leave a review on iTunes but it kept crashing on me, sorry.
You’re sweet!
Love this! Oranges make things so pretty!
This is so simple and elegant, I love it!
I’m totally with you there Joy- on my own dinner is toast. Or if I’ve feeling more adventurous toast and cheese. And if I’m really pushing the boat out toast and cheese and chocolate. That’s why I have to be cooking for others, so I get variety at dinner.
That looks super delicious/simple/amazing.
I really need someone to hold my hand when I make salad dressing. It’s my achilles heel. Weird right?
Your dinner looks really interesting and nutritious, not weird. A cupcake is well earned!
This Salad looks so simple but im sure it’s delicious!
I love your recipes Joy! and your writing its amazing like always :)
I’d love if you could check my blog! im just getting started, i could use some advice!
Thank you and I Love you and your blog in a good way <3 haha