Blood Orange and Feta Winter Salad

Winter doesn’t have to be a season of stodge. Whilst pastry, dumplings, and roast dinners smothered in gravy are beautiful things to behold, it’s worth remembering that citrus also comes into season in winter. For this recipe, I thought I’d explore something fresh and salty, full of fermented flavour and chilli oil, that makes the most of the leafy salad crops we have available in undercover growing areas at the moment. Personally, I’m a big fan of mustard leaf, Chinese winter cabbage, miners lettuce, watercress and rocket, but there’s feel free to pick whenever you have, even chard or kale (although you will need to massage the kale a bit to soften it enough to enjoy raw).

So, without further ado, let’s roll onto the recipe itself!

Blood Orange, Feta and Fermented Black Beans
Serves 2 - Lunch

• Half a blood orange

• 200g Feta / fermented tofu

• 300g Salad leaves (choices listen above)

• 2 Tbsp Fermented black beans (in chilli oil or mix with 3 Tbsp of chilli oil)

• 100ml Dressing oil

Step 1.

Mix your oils and fermented black beans in a bowl. Crumble the feta in too, making sure to leave it relatively chunky. Set aside for 30 minutes.

Step 2.

Wash and dry your salad and cut the blood orange into thick slices. Pile the leaves on a couple of plates and dress liberally with the feta, beans and oil. Slap the blood orange on top ready for squeezing, which gives the salty ingredients something acidic and clean to balance them.

It’s a simple but gorgeously tasty light lunch that also doubles up as a sandwich filling if you fancy something more substantial.