A colourful healthy winter salad, packed with fruit, nuts and seeds.The pomegranate syrup, made from concentrated pomegranate juice has a sweet and sour flavour and gives depth and character to the dish.

Orange and Chicory Salad

Dietary: Vegan, Gluten-free | Serves 2

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 oranges or blood oranges
• ½ red onion, finely sliced
• 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 25g sultanas or raisins
• about 10 black olives, pitted
• ½ tbsp pomegranate syrup
• A handful of fresh mint, chopped
• 20g flaked almonds, toasted
• 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
• Chicory, rocket, watercress, washed

Method

1. Place the sultanas or raisins and pomegranate syrup in a small saucepan, just cover with water and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and leave to stand for 15 minutes. Drain the sultanas but put any juices into a bowl for the dressing.
2. Cut the oranges into segments (see below), collecting any juice by working over the bowl where you have kept the sultana juice. Whisk in the sherry vinegar and olive oil to make the dressing and season well.
3. Toss the orange segments, sultanas, mint, sunflower seeds, flaked almonds, red onion and olives in a little dressing. Arrange the chicory, rocket or watercress on a plate and top with the orange salad.

How to segment an orange

1. There’s a real art to perfectly and neatly segmenting an orange.
2. First, take a small sharp knife and carefully slice off the top and bottom of the oranges.
3. Let one orange stand on its flat bottom and carefully hold it still. Look for where the pith meets the orange flesh and cut down the orange to remove the skin and all of the pith. The more accurate you are the better so you don’t waste orange or end up with too much pith.
4. Once you have removed one strip of peel, turn the orange and remove another strip of peel and pith. Carry on removing peel until the orange is fully peeled-remove any final bits of pith.
5. Over a bowl to catch all the juices, hold the orange carefully in your hand and line up your knife to one side of one of the lines of membrane. Make a vertical cut between the membrane and the segment of juice sacks, just up to the middle of the orange, not all the way through. Repeat this cut on the other side of the segment, which can then be cleanly removed from the orange.
6. Repeat this all around the orange. Be really careful when cutting your final segments. You then have a collection of membrane-free segments and a number of membrane ‘pages’ around the central hinge like a book.

Delicious food photography by Rob Wicks of Eat Pictures.

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