Winter Citrus Salad

Winter is definitely a time for cozy, warm, filling meals, but it is nice to have something bright to offset a heavier meal. Feel free to leave out the fennel and/or change the proportions of oil to vinegar as you wish. I like unseasoned rice wine vinegar here because it isn’t too strong, but you can use whatever you have on hand.

Ingredients:

1 large pink grapefruit

1 or 2 large oranges

12 or so shavings of fresh fennel

12 or so shavings of red onion

¼ cup olive oil

¼ cup unseasoned rice wine vinegar or white wine vinegar

Freshly cracked black pepper to taste (or Szechuan peppercorns if you have them)

Directions: Zest the orange and place the zest in a small bowl.

Cut the rind off of the grapefruit and orange and slice into 12 or so slices each. Pour any extra juice into the bowl with the orange zest.

On a small dinner plate, starting from the outside, alternate: grapefruit slice, fennel slice, orange slice, red onion slice in a circle. Keep going until you have covered the plate. Dice any leftover fennel and onion and put over the top.

Add the olive oil and vinegar to the bowl with the zest and extra juices. Whisk together and pour over the salad. Top with cracked pepper and serve.