Fennel & Grapefruit Salad with Orange-Cumin Vinaigrette

It's been a little while hasn't it?!!  I began the year with a plan to blog more frequently and more consistently.  I'm not exactly off to a strong start, but I have a feeling things are about to turn around.  This year has been off to a really busy start, and the past week was hands down the busiest week of the year.  Definitely good busy, though!  Remember my 33 before 33 list?  I've been crossing off items left and right!

I'm beyond excited to tell you that the first item on the list, graduate from culinary school, has been crossed off!  I graduated from the Classic Culinary Arts program at the French Culinary Institute, last week.  Culinary school has been an amazing journey, to say the least, and it deserves a lot more mention than a few sentences.  I'll have another post soon about my final exam and graduation, complete with lots of photos.

Two days after graduation, I hopped on a plane bound for Tampa to cross off number 11 on the list.  My visit to Florida was simply amazing and exactly what I needed!  I spent four days with two of my favorite gals - shopping, spending a day on the beach (cross off #26!), eating & drinking more than our fair share, getting in a couple solid runs, including a trail race (cross off #10), having some good laughs and catching up with each other. 

During the past couple busy weeks, grocery shopping was the last thing on my mind.  As you can guess, this left my refrigerator in a pretty pathetic state.  I always have my usual staples on hand - Greek yogurt, cheese, coffee, cereal/homemade granola, milk, seltzer and there is always an assortment of fruits and veggies.  I may or may not have the makings for a "proper" meal, but on any given day I can always whip up a salad.  Some days the pickings are slim and my salads are, well, very "creative", and other days, like today, my random assortment of ingredients turn into something wonderful and delicious.

I've been eating a couple variations of this salad over the past couple months, and I decided it's high time I share it with you.  To me, this salad calls out "winter salad".  I could easily add grapefruit to my salad in July, but I wouldn't.  It just wouldn't be the same as grapefruit in my salad in January or February.  What I really love about this salad is variety of textures and flavors - soft & crisp, and tart and sweet and aromatic and slightly spicy.

If I could add one more thing to this salad it would be a few soft, plump chunks of ripe avocado.  You should try it, and let me know what you think!

Print Recipe

Fennel & Grapefruit Salad with Orange-Cumin Vinaigrette

Serves 2

Baby spinach

1 large grapefruit, sectioned

1/2 fennel bulb, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons sunflower seeds

1 ripe avocado, in chunks (optional)

Vinaigrette

1 tablespoons fresh grapefruit juice

2 tablespoons orange juice

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 clove garlic, finely minced

Salt

Ground pepper

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

To make Vinaigrette:
In a small bowl, combine grapefruit juice, orange juice & zest, garlic, salt and pepper, and whisk together.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Slowly whisk in olive oil.

Arrange a bed of spinach on each plate.  Top with sectioned grapefruit, fennel and sunflower seeds.  Drizzle with vinaigrette.

Enjoy!