Blood orange cannelini beans, green olive, fried sage
This salad is my interpretation of a long lunch spent under the Mediterranean sun, near the sea with all your closest friends, enjoying orange wine and the region’s most in season produce.
If I were ever to host a lunch of sorts, I imagine this salad would be on the menu alongside a citrus baked whole fish and plenty of other dips and small plates.
Enjoy this salad alongside a beautiful piece of fish and roasted vegetables.
Serves 2.
Ingredients:
Salad components:
1 can of cannelini beans, drained and rinsed
1 blood orange, sliced into rounds
200g green Sicilian olives, pitted and drained
1 cup cherry tomatoes, multicoloured if possible
2 tbsp olive oil, separately used
pinch of salt
Handful of pistachios, roughly chopped
Microgreens
8 sage leaves
Blood Orange dressing:
juice of 1/2 a blood orange
3 tsp grapeseed oil
1 tsp honey
1 tsp dijon mustard
pinch of salt
Method:
Preheat oven to 200C/390F fan-forced. Add cherry tomatoes to a baking paper lined tray and drizzle 1 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt, tossing to coat. Roast for approximately 20 minutes or until they are blistered and jammy. Set aside to cool.
Chop pistachios roughly and set aside.
Drain and rinse a can of cannelini beans in a colander. Add green olives to the colander to drain.
Slice both ends off a blood orange and place flat on a cutting board. Slice off the rind, moving around the blood orange. Cut into rounds and set aside.
In a small pan, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium-low heat. Once hot, add sage leaves into the oil, making sure to lay them flat and not on top of each other. Fry on each side for about 20 seconds or until they look crispy yet still green. Set aside on a paper-towel lined plate.
In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients for the dressing and whisk to emulsify. Add the cannelini beans and green olive and toss to combine.
To assemble, plate the dressed beans and olives first, then sliced blood orange, spoonfuls of cherry tomatoes, topped with microgreens, pistachios and fried sage leaves on the very top. Finish with flakey salt.
