This refreshing winter salad uses fruit vinegar and honey to sweeten the grapefruit. I don’t actually like the tartness of grapefruit, and love this combination. My friend Lisa from The Gonzo Gourmet wrote a beautiful short essay about this salad.
On Saturday I brought this dish to a food bloggers writing workshop taught by Dianne Jacob of Will Write for Food. The whole day was energizing and made me fall even more in love with blogging, and with writing. I hope you enjoy future posts as I explore telling more stories. One assignment was to choose a food or drink from the sideboard and, after experiencing it through all of our senses, write a short piece about it in about ten minutes. Here is what Lisa wrote about this salad…
Growing up as a picky eater is like wearing black t-shirts all the time. There’s nothing inherently wrong with either scenario, but there’s nothing terribly exciting, either. Color is chaos, it’s fireworks any day but the fourth of July. Now, a few days into eating without gluten, I’m beginning to wonder what else is out there for girls like me who have a sweet tooth in the morning. Out goes cereal dancing with berries, oatmeal crowding out a banana, wheat toast smothered in almond butter and draped with apples.
Consider instead a bright fruit salad, one all the more delicious because I didn’t have to peel the grapefruit or source the ripe avocados. But what almost stopped me in my tracks were the kumquats: I don’t even know what those are. Sure, I’ve heard of kumquats, but if you handed one to me I’d hand it back with a faint smile, assuring us both that I have no clue what I’m doing.
The tang of the grapefruit I recognize from when my mother would serve them with crystals of sugar sparkling in the morning light. Against that sourness the creamy texture of the avocados is welcome – to have both in one bite is why I live in California, where seasons are seasonless and I’m only just beginning to understand that the rest of the world doesn’t have our fruits year round like we do.
The kumquats are smaller than grapes; at first I thought they were cherry tomatoes (other than the fact that they’re as bright as tangerines). Unlike the grapefruit, they’re not peeled, and that’s a texture I’m not used to. It’s how I imagine an orange peel would taste if I were to ever eat one, the way I see some men suck on lemon rinds.
I just loved some of her language, and it was fun to see my salad through her eyes. What do you think?
There are many salad recipes out there featuring a grapefruit-avocado combo. I got the idea from Jennifer Gill Trejo at Garden of Eden Organics (my CSA) and then put my own spin on it. Enjoy!
Are you a grapefruit fan? Have you ever eaten kumquats? What did you think of Lisa’s essay? Please check out her beautiful blog here.
Grapefruit-avocado-kumquat salad
Ingredients
- 2 grapefruits Blanco D'Oro
- 2 avocado very ripe
- 3-4 kumquats
- 1 tbsp agave syrup honey
- 1 tbsp cassis (fruit vinegar)
- 1 handful mint leaves (fresh)
Instructions
- You are going to macerate the grapefruit and kumquats for several hours or overnight before serving this. Macerating is a technique where fruit is combined with some kind of sugar, which creates a syrup as it draws liquid out of the fruit. In the case of grapefruit and kumquats, it sweetens them enough to balance the flavors. My mom always did this with summer berries, sprinkling sugar over them in a bowl in the fridge. I'm sure she had no idea it had a fancy term like macerating. Go Mom!
- Whisk the agave syrup or honey together with the vinegar in a bowl large enough to hold the salad.
- Start by cutting off each end of the grapefruit, then slicing off all the peel, using a serrated knife. You should always use a serrated knife on citrus peel, as cutting it can dull regular knives. You should now have a naked grapefruit with very little white pith left.
- Switching to a sharp paring knife, cut each individual section of grapefruit into the bowl with the syrup-vinegar mixture, leaving the pith in between each segment. When you have cut all the segments into the bowl, squeeze all the juice out of what remains. You have made "supremes." Not to be confused with the Motown group.
- Slice the kumquats as thinly as possible and add them to the bowl.
- Toss the fruit with the syrup, then cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.
- Just before serving, cut each avocado in half lengthwise, then twist the halves apart. Using a sharp paring knife, score the avocado in both directions (cutting just to the peel but not through it), then use a grapefruit spoon to scoop out the square sections into the bowl with the grapefruit.
- Finely chop the mint and add to the bowl. Toss. Add a small amount of salt if you like.
Notes
- 150 calories
- 14 g fat
- 2 g saturated fat
- 10 g monounsaturated fat
- 2 g polyunsaturated fat
- 0 g trans fat
- 0 g cholesterol
- 10 mg sodium
- 575 mg potassium
- 16 g carbohydrate
- 8 g fiber
- 6 g sugars
- 1 g protein
- 5 Weight Watchers Points Plus
[…] Nava for permission to share it. I made it with a combination of olive and walnut oils. I made supremes with the oranges, as I couldn’t find clementines, so I could have skipped the lemon juice. It […]
What a lovely, fresh flavor combination! By the way, I’m very envious that you got to attend one of Dianne’s seminars. I’d love for you to share this recipe (and your Tomatillo & Avocado Salsa…and your Cucumber & Avocado Soup…and…well, you get the picture) in the avocado link-up/giveaway that I’m hosting with Kristen of Dine & Dish right now. http://bit.ly/NKF4rk
[…] the tangerines and break up into sections, or get fancy and cut into supremes. Add them to the bowl, squeezing in a little extra […]
Yummy; this looks fabulous and I’m so excited to try this recipe. Perfect for this Spring Manhattan weather! Just found out you’ll be at the Dole Conference, too and I’m so excited to meet you!
Have a great weekend.
Thanks Amie, let me know if you try it. It’s definitely refreshing. Look forward to meeting you in person!
[…] I mentioned in this post, I attended a writing workshop with coach Dianne Jacob. While my friend Lisa waxed poetic about my […]
[…] Grapefruit-avocado-kumquat salad. […]
[…] recipe for this salad from Stephanie at Recipe Renovator; Stephanie was also kind enough to share my essay in this […]
This sure was a tasty salad! I think Lisa wrote an amazing essay about it. It’s great that you featured it here. Great seeing you last weekend!!
Thanks Amber. It was wonderful seeing you again too.
It was absolutely wonderful meeting you and this post and recipe is lovely!
Makes me inspired to try kumquat recipes as they come into season now.
Thanks Averie! The kumquats were in my CSA (community supported agriculture) box, so yes, they’re in season right now. Otherwise I confess I probably would never have tried them in the first place.
I am adding my voice to the choir: This salad rocked! Never having been a fan of grapefruit and never having had kumquats before, I have to say, you’ve converted me with this combo.
It was so great to see everyone again. Looking forward to seeing more of everyone soon, I hope.
So glad you enjoyed the salad and the day. It’s like eating sunshine.
Stephanie,
Nice to see you and the gals on Saturday. Loved this salad and Lisa’s story was the icing on the cake. :)
Thanks Jenny. I appreciated the chance to get to talk with you a little bit and would love to see more of your writing some time.
Thanks for featuring my story – I’m so glad you liked it! Your salad was so fresh and tangy, I bought all the ingredients at Sprouts this morning to make it myself. And we have tons of fresh mint taking over our container plants so yet another good use for them. It was fun writing with you and the entire group – maybe we can add writing prompts to our round tables?!
I love that idea. I would have love to hear more people share what they had written. Always excited to see people making my recipes!
It sounds like you had a great session with Dianne! I truly enjoy writing exercises like that — take a short time and write. It keeps the writing brain nimble :) So much fun. And so is your salad. I haven’t had kumquats in quite a while, although I enjoy grapefruit & avocado together often. I’ll have to try your version next time.
Thanks Kelly! Always nice to hear from you. Hope to see you in person soon, too.
I love how you put Lisa’s story into this post. I can’t believe how she got so much out of a short exercise. I look forward to reading more stories on this blog — I believe there’s one about cornbread coming up.
Thanks for the shout-out and I’m so pleased that you’re feeling inspired — that was my goal.
Thanks Dianne! Yes, look for a cornbread story a week from Wednesday. It was truly a worthwhile day.
I neglected to tell you how much I enjoyed your salad – and Lisa’s writing is over the top! I barely strung a couple of sentences together.
Thanks Liz! I always feel like I need to bring something special to food bloggers’ events. Guess that’s The Critic as well, right? Glad you liked it and thanks for hosting.