Winter Citrus Salad with Marinated White Beans & Olives

Winter Citrus Salad with Marinated White Beans & Olives

Yes, I know it’s Saturday. And, yes, I am aware that this Winter Citrus Salad is, in fact, a salad. No, I’m not trying to make Salad Saturdays a thing. I promise I’m not a monster, I just happened to make a salad and it happened to be quite delicious and I thought you might be interested. There is also a chance I’m a touch hungover today, so vegetables are looking bizarrely appetizing at the moment. This is most definitely a sign of some sort of vitamin deficiency. But let’s not focus on the questionable life choices I’ve made this weekend, instead, let’s turn our attention to this Winter Citrus Salad with Marinated White Beans & Olives. Pretty, right?!

Watermelon Radish - Winter Citrus Salad with Marinated White Beans and Olives

Honestly, I didn’t make this salad to push greens on you on what is most likely your cheat day. I did it because I was in desperate need of some color. In spite of the bizarre late February thaw we’re currently experiencing, everything is still dull, dark and grey. That’s the thing about late winter and early spring, the snow is disappearing, which is cool, I hate shoveling as much as the next sane person. But the receding snowbanks give way to dead grass and mounds of rotting leaves. Not exactly picturesque.

Winter Citrus and Watermelon Radishes - Winter Citrus Salad with Marinated White Beans and Olives

Thankfully, my grocery store is overflowing with beautiful citrus. Blood oranges never fail to stop me in my tracks, I will never get sick of looking at them. And Cara cara oranges? What a shade of coral! I cannot get enough of them and consequently, I cannot stop photographing them. But instead of laying out pretty, useless photographs for the sake of it. I decided to actually develop a recipe making use of all my favorites, so you can, like, get something out of it. And that recipe turned out to be this Winter Citrus Salad with Marinated White Beans & Olives.

Marinated White Beans - Winter Citrus Salad with Marinated White Beans and Olives

Olives and Pistachios - Winter Citrus Salad with Marinated White Beans and Olives

Unlike most of the borderline insane recipes I put up on this blog, this Winter Citrus Salad is straightforward, uncomplicated, and not actually five recipes stacked on top of each other. In other words, if you can operate a can opener, you can make this salad. The other nice thing about this salad is its compatibility with any piece of protein you might have kicking around your fridge. Flank steak? Definitely. Chicken thighs? Why not?! A bit of tofu? Oh heck, yes! Damn, you could serve it with the leftover pizza you don’t remember ordering last night. Everybody has one of those, right?

Winter Citrus Salad with Marinated White Beans and Olives

It might be strange to devote an entire paragraph to one relatively incidental ingredient, but here I go. We have to talk about watermelon radishes. As much as I love blood oranges, I’m starting to wonder if I love watermelon radishes more? None of this is important or pressing or, probably, interesting but I just have a lot of feelings. Have you ever seen such a beautiful naturally occurring shade of pink? It’s insane that nature makes stuff like this, stuff we can eat no less. I’m sorry, I know this is totally insane, and again, not particularly interesting, but it just blows my mind. And if it blows your mind too, then we could probably be friends.

Winter Citrus Salad with Marinated White Beans

Anyway, if I have one ringing endorsement for this Winter Citrus Salad, it’s this: This salad is the prettiest way to avoid scurvy. I’m just kidding, even if you aren’t hurting for vitamin C, this salad is a delicious home run. It’s sweet, sharp, briny and crisp. It has pistachios, olives and the garlickiest white beans you ever did eat. Really, if you find yourself at home on a Saturday night nursing a hangover, this Winter Citrus Salad is the kindest thing you could do for yourself.

Winter Citrus Salad with Marinated White Beans and Olives

Remind yourself that there is life beyond rotting leaves, and drinking-induced headaches with this soul-restoring, eye-poppingly gorgeous Winter Citrus Salad. Eat a salad on a Saturday, all the cool kids are doing it…I have absolutely no evidence of this.

Winter Citrus Salad with Marinated White Beans and Olives

Enjoy!

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Winter Citrus Salad with Marinated White Beans & Olives

Prep Time 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 540 ml can white kidney beans, drained & rinsed
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary finely chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 blood oranges
  • 1 Cara cara orange peeled & sliced thin
  • 1 watermelon radish sliced thin
  • 1 cup mixed baby greens
  • 1/4 cup pistachios coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 cup mixed olives

Instructions
 

  • In a small bowl, whisk the garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, red pepper flakes, rosemary and salt together. Place the white beans in a large bowl and pour the lemon/olive oil mixture over top. Toss to coat. Transfer the bowl to the fridge and chill for at least 1 hour.
  • Remove the skin from both of the blood oranges. Cut one of the oranges into segments and cut the other into thin medallions. Place the blood oranges, Cara cara orange, radish, baby greens, pistachios and olives in a large bowl and set aside.
  • Remove the beans from the fridge and, using a fine mesh strainer, drain the excess marinade. Reserve the marinade and add the beans to the citrus and greens. Toss to combine. Chill until ready to serve.
  • Just before serving, pour the reserved marinade over the salad and toss to coat.

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