As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, my brother and his family came for brunch this past weekend and I wanted a slightly healthier salad to go with a slightly less healthy savoury bread pudding (you can see a similar recipe at Bits and Breadcrumbs, but my version had ham and cheddar cheese, you get where I’m going with this?). This spinach salad comes from an old recipe book that I bought for my MIL about 15 years ago. She had talked about Oprah and her chef and that they were coming out with a cookbook, In the Kitchen with Rosie; she loved Oprah, so I made a mental note and put it on her Christmas list. Well, I should have known because she went out and got it for herself, so then I was stuck with the book.
There are some darn good ‘low fat’ recipes in this little book and some great tricks as well. But the one recipe that keeps making an appearance in my kitchen is the warm orange dressing on a spinach salad (this one is for you, Lisa). Now you can add what-ever you wish to create your very own spinach salad, but this is what our’s had on Sunday: baby spinach, hard-boiled egg whites, grape tomatoes (I like the colour), a little crispy fried pancetta (I know, not healthy but there was not very much of it), thinly sliced mushrooms, orange sections and toasted pine nuts. When you toss this lovely salad with the warm dressing a symphony of flavours start playing in your mouth. So delicious.
Warm Orange Dressing
Serves 6
Ingredients:
- 1 Navel orange
- 1⁄3 c Shallot, minced finely
- 2 Cl Garlic, peeled and minced finely
- 5 T White Balsamic vinegar
- 2 t Sherry vinegar
- 1/24 cup of orange juice with pulp
- Peel the orange and remove the white pith, and separate the segments (do this over a bowl in order to reserve the juice). Squeeze the residual juice from the membranes into the bowl and reserve; add the additional OJ to this mix.
- In a small saucepan, add the shallots, garlic, vinegars, and reserved orange juice, and bring to a boil over low heat.
- Just before you wish to serve, combine all the salad ingredients, add the warm dressing and toss to coat.
Lovely salad. I enjoy using orange and sometimes grapefruit in my salads since it’s so refreshing!
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Thank you kindly Divya, it is indeed a refreshing taste.
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I love the colors and the flavors Eva
I have been on a salad kick lately so this couldn’t have come at a better time
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Thanks Sawsan, it is a very tasty salad indeed.
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Oh I remember Rosie! I bought the cookbook with her and Oprah on the cover! 😀
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It’s has quite a few really good recipes, Lorraine.
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Eva this looks delicious and your photos (as always) are stellar! I love the bright, light flavors of this!
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Thank you kindly, Ann; that’s very flattering!
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Lovely dressing. I have had this before because anything you can make healthier is a good thing.
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You’re absolutely right, Pam! It’s all about balance, isn’t it?
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This salad looks lovely! Orange goes so nicely in a spinach salad.
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Thank you Beth, welcome to my blog. It’s nutritional value is good too; spinach has a lot of vitamin D but it is not readily absorbed by the body without Vitamin C!
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I LOVE a great spinach salad and this look so incredible. I can take this to work and thoroughly enjoy it 🙂
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Thank you kindly Kay! It really was yummy, both dinner and lunch!
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It’s not “only” salad – I for one really appreciate a good salad sometimes – salad and some good bread is all you need to feel satisfied in a wonderful way – not feeling overwhelmed by food, but just happily “sated”. I love spinach leaves too – they’re so tasty – love your salad… looks like you had a nice meal 🙂
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Thanks Charles! That was tongue in cheek; my diet is really mainly salad! Last night (wish I snapped a photo) was an absolutely wonderful Niçoisse, so good! Hmmm, I’m taking it to work for lunch…
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Hi Eva! Thank you so much for the mention, and I have the Rosie cookbook, too…someone gave it to me. There’s a recipe for mustard roasted potatoes that’s really good, and this warm orange dressing, especially on a spinach salad, sounds amazing. I love oranges and spinach!
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Sounds like a nice, tasty and healthy dressing.
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I usually leave making dressings to Liz, but I’m taking over next time and making this. Thanks Eva!
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This salad looks delicious!!!
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Thank you kindly Anastasia, welcome to my blog!
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Oh this looks fantastic Eva! I love a good warm, fresh dressing. And your salad toppings sound perfect for us as well. 🙂
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Thank you kindly, Kristy. I just love the way a warm dressing just slightly wilts the greens, making a variety of textures.
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Oh, that Warm Orange Dressing will go so well with my Winter Lentil Sprouts Salad.
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Thanks Norma, that does sound delicious!
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This looks really tasty and a great start to a meal. This time of year, the citrus is like serving a little bit of sunshine on every plate. 🙂
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Thank you kindly, John. You’re absolutely right that the citrus brings such a freshness that’s unparalleled; makes me wish for summer!
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Love salads like this – mandarin oranges or a citrus dressing (or both) really brighten a salad up. Also – I was just thinking about savoury bread puddings yesterday and here you offer up a recipe for one! I will definitely check this out —
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Thanks Bill, check Betsy’s recipe it’s certainly a healthier version than the one I made.
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Warm orange dressing sounds wonderful! A delightful twist from the usual dressing using lemons! Thanks for sharing! Have a lovely day!
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Thank you kindly, Kitchen Flavours. It’s a tasty little salad.
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the warm orange dressing sounds amazing. I love warm dressings and the refreshing orange scent and taste must be out of this world
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Thank you Jessica. Warm dressings are one of my favourites too; I just love they way the greens are just lightly wilted.
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Thanks, Eva. I might try this — the river of oranges is still flowing into my kitchen and we have plenty of spinach.
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Lucky you Sharyn! I love a warm dressing on a chilled salad; it’s the variety of textures that is incredible!
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Oh Eva, that looks so refreshing!
By the way, I updated the recipe for the filling, I completely forgot to type up the tandoori paste. If you don’t have any, then just use tomato paste 🙂 Also maybe as a piece of advice if you want to make the puffs, roll the dough down to a 1 cm thickness before doing the Swiss roll.. so the layers of the grease dough and water dough are much thinner. When I did it that way, they turned out perfectly flaky and delicious! 🙂
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Thank you Fati, I’ll check it out on the weekend.
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What a great starter.
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Thanks Greg
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That just looks so beautiful and refreshing. Love how you’ve presented it. And your dining room table looks gorgeous!
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Thank you Charlie. Your blog always brings me such fond memories of my own with your wonderful stories.
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