Pages

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Mixed Baby Greens with Grapefruit, Celery Root, and Shaved Parmesan

This is post 3 of 4 from the awesome Cassoulet-Style Italian Sausages and White Beans I cooked a few weeks ago for my parents. For those of you who have not been keeping up with the blog the past week; last month, I received a copy of {New York Times best-selling author} Pam Anderson's Perfect One-Dish Dinners: All You Need for Easy Get-Togethers. Pam's book makes it easy to entertain... not only is your main dish a one-dish meal, but she gives you appetizer, side, and dessert recipes. Now we are on to the salad portion! I'm not going to lie--I'm not a huge fan of grapefruit at all, but I gave it a try like I do most foods I don't like, and I'm so glad I did. It was delish and complimented the salad so much!!! My mom had 3 plates of salad! She loved it and copied down the recipe before going home! Since I was only serving 4 of us I reduced the recipe in half; however, the recipe I'm blogging about is for 8! I also could not find celery root in the store, so I went with regular celery, thinly sliced.

Like I wrote about in my first post on the Cassoulet; I used the most amazing balsamic vinegar and olive oil for this recipe. My in-laws had just returned from Italy, and brought me back a 15 year aged balsamic. It was sweet and flavorful--I could honestly drink it (and the olive oil too)! I can honestly say it is the most amazing balsamic I've ever tasted; however, if you don't have a fancy balsamic vinegar flown in directly from Italy you can use any balsamic vinegar you have on hand!

*If you haven't entered yet, make sure you go HERE and enter to win a copy of Pam Anderson's Perfect One-Dish Dinners: All You Need for Easy Get-Togethers. 
Prep: 10 minutes
Serves:8

Ingredients:
  • 3 medium grapefruits
  • 10 oz prewashed mixed baby greens
  • 1 medium celery root, peeled and grated
  • 3/4 cups shaved (with a vegetable peeler) Parmesan cheese
  • 6-8 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1-1/2-2 tbsp balsamic or rice wine vinegar
Directions: 

1. With a large knife, cut off tops and bottoms of grapefruits and stand on end. Slicing along sides, cut off rind and white pith using a small sharp knife. Working over a bowl to catch juice, slice between membranes to cut out segments. 
2. Place greens, grapefruit segments, celery root, and Parmesan in a large bowl. Just before serving, toss with 6 tablespoons olive oil and a generous sprinkling of salt and peppper. Taste, adding more oil, salt, or pepper, if necessary. Add 1-1/2 tablespoons vinegar with a little of the reserved grapefruit juice; toss to coat, adding more vinegar or juice, if necessary, to taste, and serve.
 

1 comment: