This easy, fresh, raw salad celebrates the best of local produce: ruby red grapefruit, shaved fennel, and fresh mint.
Last month I had the opportunity to visit the Golden Door spa in Escondido, CA. I had met the Executive Chef Greg Frey, Jr. and their marketing manager Kate McCoy in Chicago at Eat, Write, Retreat. My spicy blood-orange-glazed shrimp won second place in their recipe contest, which was a huge thrill for me. Since they are only a 45-minute drive north of me, we agreed I would come up and visit for lunch and a quick tour.
As you might expect, lunch was an incredibly fresh salad featuring produce from their extensive biodynamic farm, with a few locally sourced items on the fruit plate. Seriously, this was the best cantaloupe I have ever tasted.
After lunch they took me through the kitchen and out to the farm/garden, where we met some of their Golden Door honeybees and their beautiful flock of Buff Oprington chickens, also Golden! I wish I could get my strawberries to look like these!
Finally, Chef Greg sent me home with this surprise box of incredible produce, which I have been using in a variety of ways:
- chunky tomato sauce from the gorgeous tomatoes
- fish curry with the fava and string beans and eggplant
- grilled some of the eggplant and froze it for a baba ghanouj dip in the future
- potato salad
- And today’s recipe, this beautiful grapefruit and fennel salad. These are the sweetest red grapefruit I have ever tasted and they pair beautifully with thinly shaved fennel, fresh mint, blood orange olive oil, and white balsamic vinegar. A tiny bit of sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper and you have an elegant side for late summer.
We’ll be giving away some of the Golden Door artisanal food line products in this month’s giveaway, so stay tuned!
Suitable for:
low-sodium, vegan, vegetarian, paleo, Whole30® compliant, gluten-free, reduced-sugar diets
Not for:
migraine diets (grapefruit, blood orange, and white balsamic vinegar are all potential triggers)
Grapefruit and shaved fennel salad with fresh mint
Ingredients
- 4 grapefruits ruby red only for this recipe
- 10 ounces fennel 1 bulb
- .75 ounces mint leaves (fresh) 1 package
- 1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
- 2 tbsp olive oil (extra virgin) blood orange infused if available
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/8 tsp sea salt optional, omit for low-sodium diet
Instructions
- Use a serrated knife to trim off the ends and the peel from the grapefruits.
- Working over your serving or storage bowl, carefully cut away the grapefruit segments, leaving the connective pith, dropping them into a bowl as you cut.
- Trim off the top of the fennel bulb then shave the fennel using a mandoline cutter on the thinnest setting. You can also use the slicer insert on a food processor or a very sharp knife. The thinner, the better.
- Add the mint leaves (no stems) to the bowl and toss with the remaining ingredients.
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