I love salads and now that we are in Spring, there will be more leafy greens at the market and you definitely can plant some of your own salad veggies if you have space to nurture a garden.

The beginning of Spring also means citrus season is also here. The star of this salad is kumquat. WHAT? They resemble small oranges but are in fact part of the evergreen family.

So, they look like small oranges but they are not? Correct. These are native to Asia and they made their way to Corfu by way of the British. In Greek cookery, they are most often made into spoon sweet, jams and if you’ve visited Corfu, you’ve likely tastes or brought back a bottle of kumquat liqueur.

The beauty of kumquat is that you can eat all of the fruit, it doesn’t have to be peeled to remove the bitter pith. Au contraire, there is no bitterness – just mildly sweet orange flavour,

I can thinly slice with a sharp knife or carefully slice using a mandoline. Tossed among some mixed greens, some chopped fresh mint, tossed in my 3-citrus dressing, some nuts (I had some pecans) and crumbled Feta cheese.

I served this salad at my last Greek Supper Club and it was a hit – now it’s time for you to try!

Spring Salad with Kumquat, Feta & Pecans

Recipe by Peter MinakiCourse: Appetizer

Servings

4-6

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Ingredients

• 6 cups of mixed greens

• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

• 8 kumquat, thinly sliced

• 1/3 cup roasted pecans (or your fave nut), roughly chopped

• 1/3 cup crumbled Feta

• Recipe of my 3-citrus Dressing

• 1/4 cup of finely diced shallots (or red onions)

• 2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

• 2 Tbsp. honey

• 2 Tbsp. Dijon honey

• juice of one lemon

• juice of one orange

• juice of 1/2 pink grapefruit

• 2 Tbsp. Ouzo

• approx. 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

• fresh ground pepper

• sea salt to taste

Directions

• If necessary, wash greens and use a salad spinner to remove excess water. Place in a salad bowl along with the mint and place a wetted paper towel on top to keep the greens from wilting.
• For the dressing, add all the ingredients into a deep bowl and use your hand blender to process. Taste, adjust ingredients to fine-tune the dressing to your liking.
• Add a ladle of dressing, half the sliced kumquat and  toss to coat and add more if needed.
• Divide and plate your salad, top with pecans, remaining kumquat and crumbled Feta and serve.

Notes

• *Store remaining dressing (covered) in your fridge for up to two weeks
• ** Kumquats can be found at Asian Supermarkets