This beautiful and healthy stacked Sicilian Citrus Salad is a brilliant pop of color and flavor for your winter table!
There are lots of citrus salads floating around the blogosphere, and for good reason. They’re incredibly easy to make, they’re stunning to look at, and they’re so different from all the other salads we make, especially in mid winter. I’ve made several on the blog, including my Citrus Salad with Pistachio and Pomegranate, and my Blood Orange and Jicama Salad, just to name a few, but every time I see another variation I fall in love all over again.
It was such fun to stack all the different citrus fruits for this salad ~ this arrangement makes the most of their vibrant colors.
Plan on at least one piece of citrus fruit for each serving. I chose a pink and a white grapefruit, a navel orange, a Cara Cara orange, and a blood orange for a good mix of sizes and colors. There are subtle color differences even between oranges and tangerines, so if you can’t find fancy varieties, just be sure to grab several different kinds of citrus.
You’ll need a bed of greens, your choice, for your citrus stacks to rest on. I used micro kale because I had it in the fridge and I love it, but any lettuce will do.
You can peel and slice your citrus any way you want, but I find it easiest to slice them into quarter inch slices with their peel on, and then go around each slice with a small sharp serrated knife to remove the peel. Pop out any seeds before you start stacking.
Add some goat or feta cheese, some crushed pistachios (roasted and salted), thinly sliced red onion and a sprinkling of fresh mint leaves. I find this Sicilian citrus salad hardly needs any dressing at all, maybe a drizzle of really good olive oil, some salt and fresh black pepper. The juice of the fruit provides the acidity. Go for a simple vinaigrette if you want a more pronounced flavor.
Isn’t this so pretty? There are lots of ways to arrange these Mediterranean inspired citrus salads. Sometimes the slices are spread out on a platter, sometimes the fruit is sectioned and mixed with greens. Any way you do it they are a really nice change from a green salad.
Sicilian Citrus Salad
Ingredients
- 3 cups Your choice of micro greens or lettuce mix for the base of the salad, I used micro kale
- 1 pink grapefruit
- 1 white grapefruit
- 1 navel orange
- 1 cara cara orange
- 1 blood orange
- 1 tangerine
- 1/2 red onion, halved and very thinly sliced
garnish
- soft goat cheese crumbles
- crushed pistachio nuts
- fresh mint leaves
dressing
- olive oil
- lime juice
- a little salt and fresh cracked pepper
Instructions
- Begin by peeling the citrus fruit using a sharp serrated knife. Take off all the peel and the white pith and then slice the fruit into even slices. Remove any seeds.
- Lay down a bed of fresh greens on a platter. Scatter the onion slices across the lettuce. Arrange the citrus in multicolored stacks, making one stack per serving.
- Scatter the plate with the goat cheese and pistachio nuts. Arrange mint leaves around the plate, and then, just before serving, drizzle the salad with the olive oil and lime juice. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Nutrition
wow! Those shots are just breathtaking and all of a sudden i feel so refreshed:)
so beautiful… I recently ate a mozzarella and orange salad which was superb, a great combo… not as pretty as yours though x
This looks stunning! What a refreshing light citrus dish. So beautiful. Citrus is t it’s peak too.
Velva
I love your themed week! Such fun. This salad is so bright and friendly. I love your presentation and photos!
What pretty little stacks, peeled & sliced to perfection!
I love citrus salads and this one is fabulous with all of the different colors. Wow.
Sam
omg sue this looks so delicious. i’ve been living on oranges and pink grapefruit. we have lots of pink grapefruit here right now but my gf brought me some that grow in palm springs and i can’t tell you how much better hers are. like insanely good. xo
Yes, so SO pretty! Sigh…
Really gorgeous!!
This is beautiful! I saw Nicole’s salad the other day and just loved the vibrancy of the photos. How about a citrus chicken or fish? shrimp? scallops? How about a cocktail?? I’m posting one for Donna on Thursday, you could post one with me!
Oh, I’m planning a cocktail for Friday—but I still haven’t decided which one, there are so many to choose from! I’ll check Donna’s site for yours tomorrow.