Oranges appear to be typical Spanish fruits, but were actually brought to Europe by the Arabs. This bitter variety was replaced in the sixteenth century by the sweet one from China, which we now find in many recipes, like orange salad.
These sweet oranges are mainly used in salads. Delicious in autumn and winter, when oranges are perfectly sweet and sour in taste and widely available everywhere. In Spain, you find such salads all year round. The addition of this citrus fruit often produces surprising flavors. We have chosen five variations.
Simple orange salad
Ingredients:
- 2 oranges
- 1/5 lettuce head
- 1/5 red onion, peeled and chopped
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sweet Pedro Ximénez wine or port
- salt
Peel the oranges and also remove as much of the white pith as possible. Slice the oranges crosswise. Cut the lettuce into strips. Place the orange and lettuce strips on a plate and sprinkle with onion. Just before serving, mix oil, vinegar, wine, and some salt and pour this over the salad.
Orange salad with avocado
Avocados are available for most of the year in Spain, often the specimens you buy in the supermarket are already ripe or will be ready to eat after a day’s wait.
Ingredients
- 4 avocados, peeled and pitted, diced
- 2 oranges, peeled and diced
- 2 tomatoes, diced
- 1 onion, sliced into rings
- half a glass of olive oil
- 1 lime or lemon
- about 10 green olives
- a bunch of finely chopped parsley
- salt
Mix the diced avocado, orange, tomato, and onion rings in a bowl. Pour the olive oil over it, squeeze the lemon over it and add salt to taste. Stir everything together and garnish with the olives and parsley.
Also read: Popular Spanish tapas: tortillitas de camarones
Orange salad with cod
For this dish, you can use dried cod (bacalao), something that is regularly used in many Spanish kitchens. Nowadays, more and more supermarkets in Spain offer ready-to-use cod. Use large juicy oranges.
Ingredients for 8 tapas:
- 800 grams bacalao
- 2 tablespoons chives, finely chopped
- 300 grams orange in segments, seeds and peel removed, chopped
- 4 black olives olive oil, extra virgin to taste
If the cod is dried, soak it for 48 hours in water, changing the water several times a day. Remove the skin and bones and flake the fish flesh. Cook the fish until done, about 5 minutes. Stir the chives through the orange and divide the mixture into individual molds. Divide the bacalao over it and press everything down well. Refrigerate the molds for at least 1 hour and turn them onto a plate just before serving. Place a black olive on each cake and drizzle with olive oil.
Valencian orange salad
Valencia is naturally the Spanish region most associated with oranges. In this salad, orange is combined with potato.
Ingredients:
- 400 grams new potatoes, cooked in their skins and sliced
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 50 grams black olives
- 1 orange, peeled into segments
- 1 roasted pepper, cut into thin strips
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, extra virgin
- salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
In a bowl, mix the potato, shallot, olives, orange, and pepper strips. In a small bowl, mix the lemon juice with the oil, salt, and pepper. Pour this dressing over the salad and let it cool in the refrigerator.
*You can blister the red pepper in an oven at 220 degrees Celsius for about 40 minutes. Put the blackened peppers in a plastic bag, seal and let them cool for 10 minutes. Peel off the skin and remove the seeds and seed ribs.
Malaga orange salad
This salad is often encountered in the southern Spanish cuisine. Although there are many variants on this theme, the ‘ensalada malagueña’ as described here, we find the tastiest.
Ingredients
- 1 kilo potatoes, peeled and cooked, diced
- 1 kilo juicy oranges, peeled and chopped (keep a few segments)
- ¼ kilo dried or fresh cod
- one and a half onion, chopped
- green marinated olives
- to taste bunch of parsley, finely chopped
- olive oil, extra virgin
- salt
Mix the potato, orange, cod, and chopped onion in a bowl. Pour a generous amount of olive oil over it, decorate with olives and orange segments and the finely chopped parsley. Sprinkle with some more salt to taste.
