Marinated Citrus & Black Olive Salad
Celebrate the end of citrus season with this marinated Moroccan salad. For black olives, try to find some from the region. If you’re in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, Holy Land or Bill’s Imported Foods are both great places to find specialty ingredients.
Marinated Citrus & Black Olive Salad
serves 4
shopping list —
3-4 of a variety of citrus — like oranges (Cara Cara, Valencia, or Navel), pomelos, blood oranges, and/or grapefruit
black olives with pits
2 tsp cumin seeds
extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp sugar, depending on taste
pinch of cayenne
pinch of sweet paprika
a handful of parsley leaves, roughly chopped
salt to taste
equipment —
knife + cutting board
serving platter or shallow bowl
whisk
small mixing bowl x2
steps —
Suprême the citrus fruits by cutting off the top and bottom of the citrus. Set them one of the cut ends so they don’t roll. Using your knife, start at the top and follow the shape of the sphere to remove the rind and the white pith to expose the flesh.
Once all the rinds are removed on all the citrus, begin to remove the segments by cutting along each membrane, following its angle. We like to remove the segments over a bowl to catch any extra juice.
*If you don’t want to supreme each individual segment, you can always remove the rinds by following step 1. Then slice the citrus in coins about 1/4” - 1/2” thick, or depending what you like.
Once all the segments are removed, squeeze the leftover citrus membrane to reserve any juice.
If using cured black olives, soak in water for 10 minutes to remove the excess salt and then drain.
Arrange the citrus suprêmes in a shallow bowl or rimmed platter. Scatter the olives around the citrus.
Toast the cumin until fragrant, tossing often so it doesn’t burn. In a small pot, add 1/4 cup olive oil and the toasted cumin and bring up slowly until the olive oil is fragrant with cumin. Allow to cool.
Combine the citrus juice, sugar, cayenne, sweet paprika, and salt in a small mixing bowl with a whisk. Drizzle in the toasted cumin oil until you get like the balance of citrus and oil. Adjust the amount of sugar and/or salt if needed, depending what citrus you’re using. Remember, salt helps balance acidity so you don’t necessarily need heaps of sugar.
Drizzle the vinaigrette over the citrus suprêmes and olives. Sprinkle with the parsley leaves. The citrus can marinate for awhile and it will only increase in flavor the longer it sits; however, there will be a point where the suprêmes may start to break down. Serve the salad with a small bowl for the olive pits.