The sun is shining lusciously through the young leaves of the chestnut trees in front of my window – so I just had to capture this combination of light green from the leaves, the pink form the tree’s flowers and the feeling of spring!
This salad still has a faintly wintry notion with the citrus and the slight bitterness of the frisée and the radish sprouts and still is so light and fresh that it is a perfect springtime welcome greeting.
Blood orange & Swiss chard salad
4 large Swiss chard leaves
half a head of frisée ( curly endive)
1 blood orange
ca. 50g or 1/2 cup radish sprouts (if you are sprouting them yourself, you should start ca. 4 days in advance)
handful of purple shiso (or other cress)
1 small Lebanese cucumber or 1/2 cucumber
3-5 radishes
Dressing:
juice of 1/2 pink grapefruit or, if you prefer it a little sweeter, another blood orange
1 1/2 tbsp good-quality, fruity olive oil
1 tsp whole grain mustard (moutarde à l’ancienne)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp honey (for a fructose-free version replace with rice malt syrup)
Remove the stems from the Swiss chard (but don’t throw them away! They are delicious in a stir-fry or with scramble eggs). Cut the leaves into ribbons and mix with the frisée leaves.
Filet the blood orange and either dice the Filets or slice finely. Shake the cucumber and radishes. Toss, together with the radish sprouts and the salad in a bowl.
Whisk together all the dressing ingredients, drizzle over the salad and sprinkle generously with the purple shiso.
