Ecopia Farms Bright Salad

Ecopia Farms’ Culinary Director Stephen Beaumier created this salad to highlight Ecopia greens and herbs along with citrus, feta cheese and hazelnuts. Beaumier’s goal for each salad is to have an “itty-bitty burst of flavor in every bite.” With that in mind, Beaumier notes, “salt and acid are your friends.” He continues, “The number one reason that food doesn’t ‘pop’ is because of under-seasoning. So when you are ready to serve, just give the salad a taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking.”
By | January 14, 2015

Ingredients

SERVINGS: Serves 4
  • 1 pack Ecopia Farms Heirloom Spring Mix
  • 1 pack Ecopia Farms Herbs d’Jour
  • 2 blood oranges
  • 1 (3- to 4-ounce) pack good feta cheese
  • 1 (8-ounce) can or 2 (4-ounce) cans organic orange segments
  • 2–3 ounces toasted hazelnuts
  • 4 tablespoons high-quality extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to taste
  • Kosher salt, to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

Wash and spin your lettuces and place them in the large mixing bowl in the fridge with a damp paper towel over them so they will chill and get super-crisp.

To assemble the dressing, cut the blood oranges in half and squeeze the fresh juice into a small mixing bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and, if you like, a crank of fresh black pepper. Drizzle the olive oil into the juice. Whisk and taste. Adjust with salt and oil to desired flavor. Open the can of orange segments and discard the liquid. Add orange segments to the dressing, (to marinate) and reserve the dressing at room temperature.

To make the salad, remove the large mixing bowl with the lettuces from the fridge and add in half the herb mix. Crumble some of the feta cheese onto the greens along with the toasted hazelnuts. Whisk the dressing and orange segments until the dressing again becomes homogeneous.  With a spoon, drizzle the dressing over the lettuces. Begin to mix gently and continue to add the desired amount of dressing (Tip: Don’t add too much dressing. You want to be able to taste the lettuces and herbs.)

Place the lightly mixed salad into the final serving bowl, but as you place each layer into the bowl, sprinkle in additional herbs, feta, hazelnuts and segments in between the various layers. Complete the final presentation with the remainder of the herbs, additional feta, hazelnuts and marinated orange segments. (Tip: To provide pockets of flavor bursts throughout the salad, you should layer the salad and accompaniments.)

Serve and enjoy!

Ingredients

SERVINGS: Serves 4
  • 1 pack Ecopia Farms Heirloom Spring Mix
  • 1 pack Ecopia Farms Herbs d’Jour
  • 2 blood oranges
  • 1 (3- to 4-ounce) pack good feta cheese
  • 1 (8-ounce) can or 2 (4-ounce) cans organic orange segments
  • 2–3 ounces toasted hazelnuts
  • 4 tablespoons high-quality extra-virgin olive oil, plus more to taste
  • Kosher salt, to taste
  • Freshly ground black pepper, to taste