my salad recipes
Menu

Green Salad

Passover Romaine, Orange and Radish Salad

A salad of romaine, orange segments, and radishes in a lemon-and-orange olive oil dressing, made without grain, vinegar, mustard, or sesame, so you can apply your own Passover customs to it.

Prep
30 min
Total
30 min
Servings
4 (about 8 cups, four generous sides or six smaller ones)

For the salad

  • 12 oz / 340g romaine hearts, leaves checked and washed the way your household does, dried well, and torn into 4 cm (1½ in) pieces
  • 1.5 lb / 700g large navel oranges, about 3, cut into segments (see method)
  • 5 oz / 150g radishes, trimmed and sliced about 2 mm (1/16 in) thick
  • ½ small red onion, sliced very thin
  • 0.25 cup / 15g fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
  • 1 tbsp fresh mint, chopped (optional)
  • 0.33 cup / 40g blanched sliced almonds, toasted (optional)

For the dressing

  • 5 tbsp / 75ml extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 tbsp / 30ml fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp / 30ml orange juice, squeezed from the orange membranes left after cutting the segments
  • ½ tsp fine sea salt
  • to taste black pepper (optional)

Cut the oranges and make the dressing

  1. Slice the top and bottom off each orange. Stand it on a cut end and cut away the peel and white pith in strips, following the curve of the fruit. Holding the orange over a bowl, cut between the membranes to release each segment into the bowl.
  2. Squeeze the leftover membranes over a small bowl until you have 30 ml (2 tbsp) of juice.
  3. Whisk that juice with the lemon juice, salt, and a few grinds of pepper, if using. Whisk in the olive oil. Stir in the sliced red onion and leave it for 10 minutes.

Prepare the greens

  1. Check, wash, and thoroughly dry the romaine the way your household does. Tear it into 4 cm (1½ in) pieces.
  2. Slice the radishes and chop the parsley and the mint, if using.
  3. If you're using the almonds, toast them in a dry skillet over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, until light golden. Tip them onto a plate to cool.

Assemble

  1. In a large bowl, toss the romaine, radishes, and parsley with most of the dressing and onion. Taste, and add more dressing if it needs it.
  2. Lay the orange segments on top, and scatter over the mint and almonds, if using. Spoon over the rest of the dressing and serve right away.

Sweet orange against bitter-edged romaine and peppery radish is the whole idea here, and the dressing is made largely from the oranges themselves, so there is no vinegar to think about. It's a bright side salad, and most of it can be prepared a day ahead.

How the salad is built

Cut the oranges into segments rather than slices, so no pith or membrane ends up in the bowl. Squeeze the leftover membranes for the dressing's orange juice. This dressing has more juice relative to oil than a typical vinaigrette, which keeps it light and fruity. Taste it on a leaf of romaine, not off the spoon.

Slice the radishes thin so they stay crisp without being chunky. The onion rests in the dressing for ten minutes while you do the rest, which softens its bite. Toss the greens and dressing at the last moment, and lay the orange segments on top at the end so they don't break up.

Using it at a Passover table

This recipe isn't certified or labeled, and no recipe can speak for every household. Treat what follows as a starting point and follow your own household's or community's customs.

It contains fresh produce, olive oil, lemon, salt, and optional herbs and almonds. There is no grain product and no vinegar, and none of the foods often avoided as kitniyot, such as rice, corn, beans, sesame, or mustard. Kitniyot customs differ: Ashkenazi communities generally avoid them, and many Sephardi communities do not. Seeds and spices are an area where local custom varies.

Chabad.org notes that raw fruit and vegetables generally need no Passover label, provided they haven't come into close contact with chametz. Packaged items are a different question if your household looks for labels, so check the olive oil, the salt, and any nuts.

Vinegar is left out because some households avoid it during Passover, and plain vinegar may be made from grain that is chametz. Lemon and orange do the job without it.

Romaine is an open-leaf lettuce, and kosher certifiers such as the OU recommend checking it leaf by leaf for insects. Use whatever procedure your household or community follows.

What's optional

The almonds and the mint are optional, and so are the pepper and the onion. The oranges, romaine, radishes, and dressing are the salad.

Keeping it

Prepare the segments, radishes, onion, and dressing ahead, and keep each covered and cold. Combine them only when you serve, because dressed romaine wilts. Leftovers go into the refrigerator within two hours (one hour above 90°F/32°C) and are best eaten the same day.