It's blood orange season once again and they are tasty as expected! I love them for their brilliant color and flavor. And believe it or not I've been missing them all year. Last spring while out on a sunday brunch at Greens I had the best blood orange mimosa, then we went back a few weeks later and they were out of season, I was so disappointed because I knew I had to wait until… now! I haven't gotten around to the mimosa yet but it is sure to come with recipe and photos. (sparking wine, juice, complicated I know).

So I wasn't sure what to do with these guys (aside from mimosa) but a salad sounded about right. This is a very simple recipe, I basically took a standard dijon vinaigrette and added the blood orange juice while cutting back on the vinegar and mustard making it a bit sweeter and milder. It works well with the fennel and almonds. Toast the almond slivers briefly, very briefly, I put them in a non-preheated oven at 350° for 8 minutes and they were done. Once nuts start to brown it seems seconds start to matter, I've messed up on toasting nuts before and it's not fun, mainly because you have to do it all over again and it's right at that moment when they had smelled so good. So I tend to keep an eye them.

Photo note: For the salad photo it was end of day and getting cloudy, so I had to set up studio lights rather than using natural light, and as the salad was wilting I was busy screwing light bulbs, adding diffusors and such. The oranges were taken earlier in natural light. I love the sun! Recipe is below, hope you enjoy!

Blood Orange Salad and Vinaigrette

Salad

2 cups Arugula
1 cup thinly sliced fennel
2 Blood Oranges (segmented
1/4 cup toasted almond slivers

Blood Orange Vinaigrette

1/4 cup blood orange juice (about 2 oranges-squeezed and strained)
1/2 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons white balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard
salt and pepper

To make the dressing whisk together the juice, vinegar, mustard and salt and pepper (I use a immersion stick blender which works really well or just whisk by hand) slowly add the olive oil while mixing to emulsify, you can add all ingredients at once and whisk but the oil tends to separate.

Mix the arugula, fennel, and oranges, toss with dressing and top with a few orange slices and almonds.