The Sweet Parlor · Light Dessert · Serves 4

Citrus Salad
with Mint

Name: Citrus Salad with Mint
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 900 g mixed citrus; 20 g honey; 5 g fresh mint; 1 g flaky sea salt; 30 g shelled pistachios; Optional: a spoon of crème fraîche or thick yogurt, or a thread of good olive oil

Oranges and grapefruit cut free of their membranes, dressed in their own juice with honey and mint — the dessert that follows a rich meal without adding to it.

~20 min total 20 min prep No cook method

Spoon cost

Time ●○○○○ Anytime

VegetarianGluten-Free

Servingsamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

Cut the fruit free of its membranes, and save every drop of juice. The membranes are what make citrus chewy and slightly bitter in a bowl; cutting the segments out leaves you with pure fruit that eats with a spoon. Everything that runs out while you do it — plus what you squeeze from the spent membranes — becomes the dressing, so there is nothing to add but honey and mint.

Before you start

Get these into the state the recipe asks for first — the steps that use them won't wait.

A wide shallow bowl set under the cutting board — every drop of juice that runs out while you cut is the dressing

Method

Cook's notes

Variety is the whole point. One kind of orange makes a plain bowl of orange; three or four kinds — something pink, something deep red, something sharp — makes it look like a dessert. Blood oranges and Cara Caras are worth buying when they show up in winter.

Pith is the bitterness. Take the peel off with a knife rather than by hand, and go deep enough that you see flesh all the way around. A little white left in patches is fine; a white jacket is not.

Mint goes on last, torn. A knife bruises mint and turns the cut edges black within minutes. Tear the leaves over the bowl as you serve.

The pinch of salt is not a mistake. Salt on fruit sharpens the sweetness and makes grapefruit read as less bitter — the same reason it goes on melon.

What it goes with: it is the dessert for a meal that was already rich — I'd put it after brown-butter scallops or a braise. It also makes a very good breakfast with yogurt.

Make ahead: the segmented fruit and juice keep a day in the fridge, covered. Add the mint, nuts, and salt only at the table — they all go limp or soggy overnight.

Easier, if you like

Skip segmenting entirely — peel the fruit with a knife and slice it into rounds. It is faster, it looks better on a platter, and you lose almost nothing.
Buy the segments — the refrigerated produce case carries jarred citrus segments in juice. Drain them, use the juice for the dressing, and the whole dessert takes five minutes.

Vegetarian and gluten-free; vegan with one swap

Vegan: swap the honey for maple syrup or agave at the same amount.

Gluten-free: naturally gluten-free.

Nut-free: leave out the pistachios, or use toasted pumpkin seeds.

Add-ins: pomegranate seeds for color and crunch, a few slices of fennel for an anise note, a splash of orange-flower water, or a scrape of vanilla into the juice.