Avocado grapefruit salad

This avocado grapefruit salad is super simple, quick and easy to make, with delicious, refreshing flavors. It's a great way to make the most of winter citrus to add some brightness to your winter table. Perfect as part of brunch, lunch and so much more.

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In our part of the world, winter can drag on a bit. Much as I love so much about winter, including the excuse for some comfort food favorites, it can get too much, too. All that cold weather and heavier food needs breaking up.

Citrus often feels like nature's way of reminding us that spring is on it's way, and this bright grapefruit avocado salad is a perfect example. It's lovely and light, with vibrant colors and that zesty tang that only citrus delivers. Best of all, you only need a few minutes to make it.

Grapefruit: a lesser used citrus

Grapefruit is part of the citrus family, that includes oranges and lemons. It's actually a hybrid or pomelo and sweet orange. Citrus fruits have been cultivated for centuries and you'll find a number of hybrid variations, like Meyer lemon, that have become popular for having features from different flavors (as well as size and ease of peeling) in them.

While grapefruit is one that has been around a very long time, however, it is one that often feels slightly overlooked. Lemons have that zesty tartness that works so well in both sweet and savory, oranges are bright and sweet. Grapefruit, meanwhile, is somewhere in the middle and can be a little hard to know what to do with it.

Grapefruit comes in both a yellow and ruby red varieties. The yellow form always used to be more common, but these days the sweeter red grapefruit seems more popular, and I can understand why. It's a little less tart, and more colorful. It's great eaten on it's own, and salads like this one are a perfect use for it, too.

Ingredients in this salad

This salad incorporates a few things that pair really well with grapefruit:

• Avocado - fairly obvious, given the salad name and ingredients, but the rich creaminess of avocado works really well with grapefruit (as well as other citrus)
• Leafy greens - especially ones like arugula and spinach that have that slight bitterness, pair well.
• Almonds - the slightly fatty richness pairs really well with the fresh citrus. Other nuts and seeds can also work well, especially those with milder flavors, like pine nuts and pepitas.
• Honey - this helps bring out the sweetness and flavor, and I have used a little here in the vinaigrette.

Other flavor pairings for grapefruit

Grapefruit pairs well with some other ingredients as well. Each of these are things that you might want to consider adding in to the basic salad recipe, or when thinking about things to go alongside:

• Fennel - while not in this salad per se, it would make a great addition if you want to add a bit more in there. The anise flavor pairs really well with citrus, especially grapefruit.
• Creamy cheeses - things like feta, goat cheese and mozzarella all have that lovely creaminess that balances out the tartness in grapefruit. All would work well as potential additions here. Alternatively, serving this with a cheesy tart or quiche would be great.
• Salmon - citrus and salmon are a great match, so consider serving this as a side to some simply baked or poached salmon, for example.
• Chicken - another protein that works well with citrus, it too would be a great main to pair this with, or alternatively chop some chicken up and mix it in.
• Basil, tarragon and mint - while I wouldn't necessarily use all together, each of these pairs well and so are ideas of flavors you could incorporate alongside.
• Berries - also not included here, but a great pairing and if you like, you could add some for extra color.
• Other citrus - you could add in some slices of orange as well, or incorporate lemon into the dressing, or in with other dishes to pair with this.

So while this salad itself is super simple, hopefully this gives you some ideas on ways to vary and expand it, as suits the occasion and what you have.

All that said, this salad is delicious as it is and well worth making. It has a great mix of textures and flavors, despite so few ingredients. It's just a base of greens, some grapefruit and avocado slices, toasted nuts and a simple vinaigrette. That's it, but it's it works so well.

Preparing grapefruit segments

The only potentially tricky bit about this salad is the fact that you cut grapefruit segments. While grapefruit is not that tricky to peel and separate out segments with skin on, the skin between segments is a little thick. It's not too bad if you are just snacking on it, but it's a less pleasant texture in salads.

You can peel open segments, as you do with pomelo for my pomelo salad, but the pieces of grapefruit tend to break more easily. To get whole or evenly halved segments, segmenting is the way to go.

Yes, you can buy cans of ready-segmented grapefruit, but they are really not the same fresh flavor. I don't recommend them for this - fresh fruit is so much better. And honest, it's not that tricky! You just need a thin, sharp knife to help you cut in close to the membrane.

To segment a grapefruit, you start by removing the peel. You can either cut it off or score the skin and remove that layer first. Then use a sharp pairing knife to cut the membrane/skin on the outside of the segments. You then cut down both sides of the membrane to remove the individual segments. Leave them whole, or halve as I have here, as you prefer.

A no waste vinaigrette!

Don't discard all that membrane that you cut away the fruit from just yet, as it's still packed with juice. Squeeze it out to get all the juices that you can. If needed, strain the juice to remove any stray bit of membrane or seeds.

This gives a delicious base for a simple citrus vinaigrette. Just mix it with some olive oil, salt, black pepper and honey for a lovely balance of flavors. If you don't have quite enough grapefruit juice coming from squeezing (or from your chopping board), use a little lemon juice to top it up. It, too, pairs well but I love using the grapefruit juice since you already have it.

This avocado grapefruit salad is wonderfully bright, light and only a few ingredients. Yet despite it's simplicity, it's a delicious mix of flavors. Pair it with various mains to make a fresh-feeling meal or add it in to a brunch for something lighter in the mix. Or simply enjoy it as it is. Deliciously simple, and well worth enjoying soon.

Try these other tasty salad recipes:

• Sicilian fennel orange salad (another simple and delicious citrus salad)
• Beet apple salad with maple vinaigrette (another simple salad perfect for the colder months)
• Apple celeriac salad (with apple, celeriac and bacon, this salad is a tasty mix of sweet and savory)
• Plus get more side dish recipes in the archives.

See some of my favorite cooking tools and ingredients in the Caroline's Cooking Amazon store. 

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