the cucumber and orange salad recipe
The key here is good olive oil. We buy Colavito at Nature's Best in a giant gallon can, and then pour it into a smaller bottle for use. It's a deep green and not too expensive.
To be honest, I didn't even know about olive oil until I met my husband. Until then, I thought all salad dressing came ready-made in the bottle, either bright orange French or maybe that Italian kind where you have the special bottle and add the oil (not olive oil) and water up to the line, add the seasoning packet, and shake.
Here's the recipe:
Pour about 2 T. of olive oil into a bowl. A salad bowl is nice, but not required. Add some kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Moosh it all around with the salad server. (Moosh is a very technical culinary term.)
Peel the cucumber. Cut in half and scoop seeds out with a spoon. Slice on the diagonal into slices about 1/4" wide. Throw those into the salad bowl.
Peel the orange. Naval is best because no seeds to deal with. Other wise, remove the seeds. Slice the orange into discs about 1/2" wide and then slice each disc into 3 or 4 pieces. Throw into bowl with cucumbers.
Toss. Add more oil if necessary - you want just enough so that the veggies glisten but aren't swimming. Add either some orange juice or fresh lemon juice (the first will be sweeter, the second more refreshing and sharp).
After serving whichever poor souls who don't know the wonder of roasted beets, you can add some sliced beets that have been roasted in the oven for about 40 min. in a packet of foil, with a little olive oil. Be careful not to spill the beet juice or touch anything with your very pink fingers, or you'll have a happy stain wherever you touched. You can also get fancy orange or golden beets, and then no staining problems to deal with.
One of my daughters spent some time in Cyprus. She called one day and said that anything made with olive oil and lemon juice is wonderful. Probably even cardboard would taste good in this salad, though I don't recommend it.
To be honest, I didn't even know about olive oil until I met my husband. Until then, I thought all salad dressing came ready-made in the bottle, either bright orange French or maybe that Italian kind where you have the special bottle and add the oil (not olive oil) and water up to the line, add the seasoning packet, and shake.
Here's the recipe:
Pour about 2 T. of olive oil into a bowl. A salad bowl is nice, but not required. Add some kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Moosh it all around with the salad server. (Moosh is a very technical culinary term.)
Peel the cucumber. Cut in half and scoop seeds out with a spoon. Slice on the diagonal into slices about 1/4" wide. Throw those into the salad bowl.
Peel the orange. Naval is best because no seeds to deal with. Other wise, remove the seeds. Slice the orange into discs about 1/2" wide and then slice each disc into 3 or 4 pieces. Throw into bowl with cucumbers.
Toss. Add more oil if necessary - you want just enough so that the veggies glisten but aren't swimming. Add either some orange juice or fresh lemon juice (the first will be sweeter, the second more refreshing and sharp).
After serving whichever poor souls who don't know the wonder of roasted beets, you can add some sliced beets that have been roasted in the oven for about 40 min. in a packet of foil, with a little olive oil. Be careful not to spill the beet juice or touch anything with your very pink fingers, or you'll have a happy stain wherever you touched. You can also get fancy orange or golden beets, and then no staining problems to deal with.
One of my daughters spent some time in Cyprus. She called one day and said that anything made with olive oil and lemon juice is wonderful. Probably even cardboard would taste good in this salad, though I don't recommend it.
Comments
The salad sounds lovely, I will try to amass the ingredients on my way home from Monday's day of doctoring which will take me a stones throw from a coop with great fruits and veggies. Thank you.