Sumo Brussels Salad with Sweet Tangy Hot Pepper Vinaigrette
Sumo Oranges are my Winter obsession. Beholding a Sumo Orange is a beautiful thing: You’ll notice right away the bulbous plug on top, the bright orange mottled skin shiny with zesty citrus aroma. Handle the plug and tug, gentle but firm, and watch the whole thing unravel in one efficiently gorgeous motion. Separate the segmented fruit, with your fingers, there are no seeds. The jeweled segments are fat with a multitude of sweet bursting juice pods. You place it on your tongue and darkness becomes bright.
INSERT PERSONAL SUMO REACTION HERE:
For me, it’s the best orange I’ve ever had. Providing a much-needed sunny citrus pop in the midst of a snowy white Winter. A natural treat for a sugar freak to worship. The perfect citrus experience.
Really, when it comes to Sumo Oranges the best way to eat them is straight outta their miraculous peel. However being a bit of a tinkerer, I wanted to incorporate them into a recipe that celebrates this sublime fruit.
Fresh crisp salads are another kind of nutritious Winter treat. Salads also take on a miraculous aspect when everything emerging from the kitchen is brown or beige and on the soft-mushy side of the texture scale. Stews and vegetable braises are warm and comforting, needed during a brutal winter. But now I’m in the mood for something that bites back, maybe it’s a sign of re-emergence?
Shaved-down Brussells sprouts provide a nice chewy texture, but any bagged shredded green veg would work (broccoli-kale comes to mind). Finely chopped red onion or shallot add a nice sweet pungency to the bitter-edged greens. Feta cheese or any other crumbled cheese adds a sharp saltiness that is hard to ignore especially when in contrast with the Sweet Tangy Pepper Vinaigrette. This salad is a kaleidoscope of the flavor: salty, sweet, bitter, spicy, sour, umami…! But it is the beautiful sumo segments that get the chef’s kiss.
SWEET TANGY HOT PEPPER VINAIGRETTE:
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
1 tbsp chopped canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (about 2 )
1 peeled/crushed garlic clove
2 tsp. dijon mustard
1/3 c. salad oil ( I used safflower and avocado)
Dressing Method:
Combine first five ingredients in a blender or a mini-processor, pulse a few times. The concoction will be deep orange and a little lumpy.
Add oil in a steady stream and pulse until emulsified. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if you want.
SALAD INGREDIENTS:
10 oz. (i baggie) shaved brussells sprouts or other shredded greens combinations
1/4 cup diced red onion or shallot (1/2 red onion, 1 shallot)
4-6 oz. crumbled Feta or soft-cheese-of -choice
1 Sumo orange *see below for segmenting suggesttions
METHOD:
This salad is wide open to interpretation and personal flavors and eating styles. The idea is to have a crunchy green vegetable/s at its base for some bitter-edged roughage. Some kind of salty umami flavor (cheese, mushrooms, tofu), avocado, and then the sweet tangy flavor of citrus. And then to douse it all in the Sweet Tangy Hot Pepper Vinaigrette. Recipe serves 2 as a Main,4, as a Side.
Sumo segment suggestions:The white pith enclosing the juice-filled segments is white and stringy, in the center of each segment is a stringy seam that you can pull off as you would so a string bean, once the translucent skin that separates the segments will reveal shiny sacs bursting with juicy orange-ness. Perfection. If you care to, pull off the fibrous strings at the underside of the segment.
