Radicchio salad with mandarin, olives and Grana Padano

I’m in a bitter mood lately. Bitter greens mood that is. Cavolo nero, endive, rocket and radicchio were all part of our meals this past week.

 

 

I cooked cavolo nero on Sunday, as part of our lunch, boiled and served with lots of extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice (much like I did here), and earlier last week I made this salad with radicchio. The bitter and lightly spicy flavor of this red radicchio with white veins is simply amazing for all those of us who embrace bitterness in our food.

 

I paired the crunchy leaves with a few sweet and juicy mandarin segments, shaved Grana Padano cheese for its umami and salty flavor, wrinkly Greek olives for their briny bitterness (another excellent source of bitter flavor that I adore), pumpkin seeds for extra crunch and earthiness, and mint for its herbaceous freshness.

 

I made a creamy, ultra vinegary sauce, a zingy vinaigrette if you will, that if tasted alone you’d think you have added too much vinegar, but you’d be mistaken. Paired with all the salad ingredients, all tasted in one bite, you will find the balance, and it’ll make your palate do a little happy dance, as did mine.

 

More of my recipes with bitter vegetables or frutis:

~ Kale chips, the Greek way

~ Purple kale and kumquat bruschetta with Greek Kefalotyri cheese and a tahini & date molasses dressing

~ Greek phyllo pie with kale and feta

~ Kale pesto fusilli with Greek Kefalotyri cheese and preserved lemon

~ Raw kale, red cabbage and blood orange salad with hazelnut and a toasted sesame oil and ginger vinaigrette

~ Cavolo nero bruschetta

~ Marinated beef stir-fry with Savoy cabbage and cashews

~ Blood orange, Campari and semolina syrup cake  

~ Chewy meringues with Greek yoghurt, blood oranges and a blood orange & orange blossom water syrup

~ Hot and sour salad with grapefruit, orange and kumquats

 

 

Radicchio salad with mandarin, olives and Grana Padano

For those of you who are not familiar with radicchio (part of the chicory family), it has thin, soft, silky leaves and crunchy veins. It is not like purple cabbage whose whole leaf is thick and very crunchy. 

I love having this kind of salad as my lunch with a chunk of good bread.

It is also wonderful served alongside a main meal and it would make a nice pairing with grilled fish, a rich pasta dish or braised meat.

 

Yield: enough for 2 people

 

Ingredients

9-10 radicchio leaves, rinsed, well patted dry and torn in half

2 large mandarins, peeled and cut into rounds

Grana Padano cheese, shaved or thinly sliced

Black olives, I used Greek wrinkly ones called throubes

A handful of pumpkin seeds, toasted if you want

Fresh mint leaves

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

 

for the vinaigrette

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp honey, I used Greek wild thyme honey

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

 

 

Preparation

make the vinaigrette

Add all ingredients in a small, deep bowl and whisk well to combine and emulsify.

make the salad

Place radicchio leaves on a large plate, add the mandarin rounds and scatter some olives.

Add a few pieces of shaved Grana Padano, sprinkle some pumpkin seeds all over, as well as a few mint leaves, torn if too large. Add some salt and pepper, and drizzle with just a little bit of olive oil to moisten the leaves.

Then, use a spoon to add the vinaigrette. Don’t use all of it at once. Add some, toss the salad and check if it needs more. Everyone’s taste is different and you may need less or more.

Grab some good sourdough bread and enjoy! Or serve it alongside your main meal.

If you have any leftover vinaigrette, keep it in the fridge in a small jar for 2-3 days and use it in salads, with grilled vegetables or in sandwiches.