Winter Retreat Blood Orange Kale Salad

It’s blood orange season! I can’t find them year-round, but I can buy them by the bag at my usual grocery store for the first few months of the year. I’m on bag number three right now, so stay tuned for more blood orange recipes. But today I’m indulging in this gorgeous Winter Retreat Blood Orange Kale Salad. The photos were so beautiful that I was instantly drawn to it. A quick read showed me this salad is packed with healthy things I love, so it wasn’t hard to decide to try it. Plus it has steamed broccoli, and I have never steamed anything. New skill unlocked, I hope!

This Winter Retreat salad is packed with superfoods like kale and blood orange that will nourish you from the inside out. Build immunity and a healthy glow by eating nutrient dense and seasonal foods!

Recipe Author: Silvia Dunnirvine at Garden in the Kitchen
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The Ingredients

I needed to buy almost all the ingredients in this lovely salad. All I had was sea salt and oil-cured black olives. The recipe says “pitted olives” but not the type. They’re good, but oil-cured olives are next-level! They have a stronger, saltier flavor that I love, and I had just enough left for this recipe.

So off to the store with high hopes of finding everything in one stop. I almost did it! My go-to grocery store had everything but the lacinato kale. All they had was curly kale. It would probably work, but lacinato kale is milder and tastes better.

I really wanted that lacinato, so I ran home, put away my groceries, and ran up the street to the fancy grocery store. They had it! I bought a bunch and a few other things because that store was pure temptation for me, and left with a smile on my face.

Tip: If blood oranges are out of season, try cara cara oranges. They have pinkish-red flesh and similar sweetness. Other types of oranges will work in this recipe too. Navel oranges, mandarins, tangerines, and clementines all have a sweetness similar to blood oranges but lack the distinctive berry taste unique to blood oranges.

Winter Retreat Blood Orange Kale Salad Ingredients
Lacinato kale, broccoli, radicchio, grape tomatoes, oil-cured black olives, blood oranges, avocado oil, and sea salt

The Process

This salad isn’t all raw fruits and vegetables. The broccoli is steamed, so I had to learn how to do that. Other than that, there was lots of slicing and chopping with a little bit of peeling. In other words, familiar things that I was comfortable doing.

Choosing a Steamer Basket

I had some planning to do before I made my Winter Retreat Blood Orange Kale Salad because I didn’t have a steamer basket. When I think of steaming, the classic bamboo basket comes to mind. I had no idea there was such a huge variety of steamer baskets! Besides bamboo, there are silicone, plastic, and metal baskets, and many of them fold up for easy storage.

I have very limited storage space, so I chose a folding metal steamer basket that expands from 5.1″ to 9″. It also has folding feet and a telescoping handle that can be removed for steaming larger items. I love this handy little steamer basket that fits in the palm of my hand when it’s all folded up!

Steaming the Broccoli

Now that I had my steamer basket, it was time to learn how to use it. Finding tips, tutorials, recipes, and videos was easy. The consensus is to steam broccoli for 5 to 6 minutes for that perfect crispy-crunchy texture that I like. And it’s so easy!

Steaming broccoli in a large saute pan
Steaming broccoli in a large saute pan
  1. First, I filled a deep saute pan with about 1″ of water and put it onto the stove to boil.
  2. Next, I trimmed the florets off the broccoli and piled them into the basket.
  3. Then I added it to the pan once the water was boiling, covered it, and let the broccoli steam for 5-6 minutes.
  4. I like my broccoli tender with a touch of crispness, and I for exactly that in 6 minutes.

Of course, you can adjust the time to your liking. Longer will result in a softer texture, and shorter will be crispier.

Prepping the Kale

I genuinely like kale, especially kale salads. Kale wasn’t on my radar before this blog. I assumed it was tough and bitter and I wouldn’t like it. Boy, was I wrong! Kale is great in soups, but I love a good kale salad!

A day or two before I planned to make this recipe I saw a kale stemming hack on Instagram. It looked so fast, but these things don’t always work for me. I had to test it!

You need:

  • 1 pair of tongs with a push-pull lock at the top (the lock must have a small hole in it)
  • paring knife

And you need to:

  1. Insert one leaf into the hole in the tong’s lock
  2. Pull it through to remove the leaf from the stem
  3. Optional: Use the paring knife to trim the stem if it’s too large to fit into the hole
Stemming kale leaves with a pair of tongs
Stemming kale leaves with a pair of tongs

It worked! I had the leaves stemmed faster than I ever could have done by cutting with a knife or tearing with my hands. It left the fine stems at the tips of the leaves in, but they are tender enough to eat.

Next, I chopped the leaves into bite-sized pieces, added them to a mixing bowl with some of the avocado oil, and massaged it for 2 minutes.

Massaging isn’t hard—just grab a bunch in each hand and squeeze hard. Then drop it, pick up more, and repeat. The goal is to break down the fibers and tenderize the kale, so you’ll notice the leaves turn darker green and feel softer as you work.

Massaging kale with avocado oil
Massaging kale with avocado oil

Finishing Up

The most labor-intensive parts of the prep work were done, but there were still a few ingredients left. I still had to:

  • slice the radicchio,
  • halve the grape tomatoes,
  • peel and slice the blood oranges*,
  • and pit and halve the black olives.

*The recipe says to slice and cube 2 blood oranges, but I cubed both and sliced a third blood orange for the garnish.

Once that was done, it was time to assemble this beauty. I used my favorite technique for a beautiful salad presentation. Mixing all the ingredients causes the smaller ingredients to end up on the bottom of the bowl.

  1. Set aside a few of the small ingredients/toppings
  2. Add the remaining ingredients to a large mixing bowl
  3. Add the dressing and seasonings and mix thoroughly
  4. Transfer the salad to a serving bowl or platter (optional)
  5. Top the salad with the reserved ingredients and serve

I served my Winter Retreat Blood Orange Kale Salad on a 15-inch platter and topped it with the reserved blood orange slices, black olives, and grape tomatoes.

Pitting the olives and other salad ingredients
Pitting the olives and other salad ingredients

Timing

This recipe lists a total time of 12 minutes. I went way over that and mine took 32 minutes to prepare. I think a good part of the slow-down was pitting and slicing the olives, halving the grape tomatoes, and peeling the oranges. I’m out of practice in the first two of those things., but I admit I didn’t rush to get this salad put together. I worked at my own pace, though, and I didn’t have any trouble with the steps.

So how was it?

Clear & Accurate Directions
Accurate Time(s)
Appearance
Taste
This Winter Retreat Blood Orange Kale Salad is one of the prettiest salads I have ever made! The blood oranges, radicchio, and grape tomatoes added so much color to the verdant green kale and steamed broccoli. The flavors were nicely mixed too. I loved how the sweet blood orange, salty black olives, and tart grape tomatoes added some zip to the green vegetables. Hubby and I both felt it was missing something, though, and I suggested extra virgin olive oil while he thought of balsamic vinegar. I had a fresh bottle of Monari Federzoni balsamic that was a bit thick and had a touch of sweetness. It was perfect! It gave the salad a little extra flavor without overpowering all the delicious fruits and vegetables. Making this salad wasn't complicated, but it did take me more time than what was listed. I think the little things like halving the tomatoes and olives took me a little extra time. I still had my salad ready in about half an hour, which really is no time at all for something this gorgeous. I'm calling this a Pinterest success, and I will make it again, especially if I need an impressive salad for company.
The Hungry Pinner
The Hungry Pinnerhttps://www.hungrypinner.com
I'm Candice, and I'm The Hungry Pinner. I created this blog to share my love for cooking and my experiences with the MANY recipes I've found on Pinterest over the years. Join me as I blog my way through those recipes to find out if they are worth trying yourself.

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This Winter Retreat Blood Orange Kale Salad is one of the prettiest salads I have ever made! The blood oranges, radicchio, and grape tomatoes added so much color to the verdant green kale and steamed broccoli. The flavors were nicely mixed too. I loved how the sweet blood orange, salty black olives, and tart grape tomatoes added some zip to the green vegetables. Hubby and I both felt it was missing something, though, and I suggested extra virgin olive oil while he thought of balsamic vinegar. I had a fresh bottle of Monari Federzoni balsamic that was a bit thick and had a touch of sweetness. It was perfect! It gave the salad a little extra flavor without overpowering all the delicious fruits and vegetables. Making this salad wasn't complicated, but it did take me more time than what was listed. I think the little things like halving the tomatoes and olives took me a little extra time. I still had my salad ready in about half an hour, which really is no time at all for something this gorgeous. I'm calling this a Pinterest success, and I will make it again, especially if I need an impressive salad for company.Winter Retreat Blood Orange Kale Salad