Italian Orange, Radicchio, and Pecan Salad

The best thing about winter is all the winter citrus which is available! For your next salad, pass by the sad, summer produce and instead pick up some bright and fresh Cara Cara oranges to make an Italian orange salad.

While I may be eagerly awaiting the arrival of spring strawberries and local green beans to my markets, winter citrus gives me the taste and color of summer no matter how cold or miserable it is outside.

In fact, this time of year I cannot resist buying All the Citrus. I have Cara Cara oranges, Meyer lemons, Blood oranges, and more in my crisper right now. This is when they are all at their most available and freshest so don’t pass them by!

If you’re not familiar with winter citrus, here’s a guide to all the different fruits available, with some photos and descriptions. So many different kinds! Some that I haven’t even seen in person yet! Soon I hope…

In the meantime I’ll just be over here enjoying Cara Cara oranges.

These are our favorite oranges and I’m always slicing up a few for snacks, or cubing them up over pancakes, baking them into an orange bundt cake, having them tossed into a salsa for oven fried cod, or putting them into a quick Mediterranean chicken saute for dinner. So many different ideas from sweet to savory. (And I have a cocktail coming up!!)

Here I chose to balance the sweet oranges with bitter radicchio and spicy shallots, adding some toasted pecans for crunch. I started with arugula as the lettuce, but it wasn’t right. I needed something more bitter and with more…weight to it and radicchio was perfect.

The last touch I chose was the basil. Which I know is summery and not so cheap right now! But it was exactly right for the rest of the flavors. The salad is fine without but especially good with a little basil sprinkled over the top.

– Happy Eating, Annemarie

Print Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Italian Orange, Radicchio, and Pecan Salad

Looking for a healthy and fresh winter salad? Try an Italian orange salad full of sliced cara cara oranges, bitter radicchio, and toasted pecans all tossed with a lemony honey mustard dressing.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Total Time15 minutes mins

Course: Salad

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: 4 salads

Calories: 175kcal

Author: Just a Little Bit of Bacon

Ingredients

Orange Salad

• 4 cara cara oranges, or navel oranges
• 1 cup thinly sliced radicchio
• 1/2 cup toasted whole pecans
• 1 tbsp thinly sliced shallots
• 2 tbsp thinly sliced fresh basil leaves

Salad Dressing

• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp honey, or 2 tsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Instructions

• Cut the ends off of each orange and then slice the peel off, removing all the peel and pith. Then slice the oranges into 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch thick 'wagon wheel' shapes.
  
• Gently mix together the orange slices and radicchio and arrange them on a platter. Scatter the pecans, shallot slices, and basil slices over the top.
  
• Whisk together (or shake together) the dressing ingredients until they are combined and the dressing is thick. Drizzle the dressing over the top of the salad. Reserve any extra dressing in a bowl for people to add as needed.
  

Notes

• I used all Cara Cara oranges, but you can use a mix of citrus. Combine navel, cara cara, blood oranges, and/or any other orange varieties you have available.
• To toast the pecans bake them in a 350F oven for 5 minutes.