Fresh Spring Salad with Orange Vinaigrette Dressing

Every season brings fresh seasonal produce. And the best way to enjoy these seasonal produce is eat it fresh, as it is, as a SALAD!

I have a confession to make; I don’t do salads much. No, not that I don’t like salads, it’s just that I like my veggies stir fried. I usually stir fry almost all the veggies. So eating raw is once in a way thing at home.

The other reason I don’t do salads too often is, I love big flavors and texture in my food. And for someone like me who loves spices, textures,  salads are mostly BORING, unless the salad is served with a mind blowing flavorful dressing along with it which turns the boring salad to delicious one.

Now that is exactly what I did today. Got my hands on some fresh cute little baby radish that I so badly wanted to use in salad. And the challenge was to make the salad interesting with a simple yet delicious salad dressing. I used all healthy and pantry ingredients to make my salad dressing, nothing fancy! It has oranges with its peel, olive oil, cayenne pepper, white wine vinegar, salt, honey, fresh red chilies, and parsley.

A salad dressing can’t get any easier than this one, chop parsley and red chilies, and add all the ingredients in a bottle, shake it well. Your delicious and healthy, no fat salad dressing is ready.

Ingredients

 

For orange vinaigrette dressing-

1 orange (juice and skin grated- make sure not to grate deep inside the skin, as the deeper you go the peel gets bitter)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1 teaspoon honey

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon fresh parsley(finely chopped)

1 tablespoon red chilies(finely chopped)

 

For salad-

10 baby radish

1 small cucumber

½ cup red lettuce leaves

½ cup asparagus (blanched in water for about 5 to 7 minutes)

2 soft boiled eggs

Handful of micro greens(optional)

 

Method

1. For the salad dressing(Orange vinaigrette) – grate the skin of orange and collect ½ teaspoon of the peel. Squeeze the juice from the orange. Chop fresh red chilies and parsley fine. In a bottle add all the ingredients cover with the lid tight and shake it well for few minutes. You healthy delicious orange vinaigrette is ready.
2. To assemble the salad – chop the veggies into small bite size pieces. Add all the veggies into a large salad bowl. Add a pinch of salt and pepper powder to the veggies. Toss gently with hands.
3. Transfer the salad into serving dish. Place soft boiled eggs on top. Pour the orange vinaigrette dressing and serve immediately.