Description
La Salade Mentonnaise is a delicious fennel, orange and artichoke salad with pine nuts and a citrus vinaigrette. Perfect with grilled fish.
Ingredients
Ingredients for La Salade Mentonnaise for four
- 2 bulbs of fennel with the fronds attached
- 2 large oranges
- 1/2 cup of pine nuts
- 4 large artichoke hearts in oil (if you have smaller artichoke hearts use 8)
- Pinch of fresh sea salt
- 6 cups of mixed greens
Vinaigrette
- 4 tbsps olive oil
- 1 1/2 tbsps balsamic vinegar
- 2 tbsps fresh orange juice (from the oranges you use for segments)
- pinch of "fleur de sel" (flaky sea salt)
Instructions
- preheat your oven to 350.
- Place then pine nuts on a dry cookie sheet or stainless steel sizzling platter . Bake for 8 minutes, stirring halfway through. This will bring out the rich nutty flavor of the pine nuts.
- Meanwhile, cut up the fennel into thin slices. I like to cut off the fronds just as they are getting dark green, as well as the base of the fennel bulb by about 1/2 an inch. Peel off the tough outer leaves and then you can begin slicing. I suggest using a mandolin to get paper thin slices.
- Next, cut up your oranges into segments. Le Chef's tip for getting beautiful orange segments is to cut off the peel of the orange using a sharp serrated knife. Then, holding the whole orange in his hand, he slices in between the ribs of each segment, taking out perfect orange pieces. You can watch how he does it on the instagram reel for La Mentonnaise. I suggest placing a bowl underneath your hands as you do this so that you catch all of the delicious fresh orange juice. When you have taken all the segments out of the orange squeeze the remaining juice into the bowl (you will use this for the vinaigrette) and discard the rest.
- Then, chop up your artichoke hearts in halves or in quarters (depending on the size).
How to make the vinaigrette
- In a small bowl add the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, orange juice and fleur de sel.
- Mix together. That's it! super simple and yummy!
Assembling the salad
- Place your mixed greens at the base of a large salad bowl
- Spread the fennel slices over top
- Add the artichokes
- Then the orange segments.
- Top with the roasted pine nuts
- Zest the lemon over everything
- Drizzle the vinaigrette over the top
- Toss all the ingredients together - mixing well to coat the vinaigrette over everything.
- Serve
Notes
How to serve La Salade Mentonnaise
La Salade Mentonnaise is best served immediately. Greens have a short span of life after they have vinaigrette on them.
*Le Chef's Wife tip: If you are making this salad in advance or bringing it to a BBQ, simply keep the vinaigrette in a jar on the side. Mix together just before serving.
This dish is best served "Italian Style" meaning the salad bowl is brought directly to the table and guests add the salad to their plates.
True Mentonnaise style would be to serve this salad as an accompaniment to grilled mediterranean fish such as Branzino or Rock fish.
I have served this salad with salmon or shrimp and it was absolutely delicious. It pairs well with lemon grilled chicken too.
Wine Pairing for a fennel, orange and pine nut salad with artichokes
I recently tried a white Beaujolais by Chateau de Corcelles that would pair deliciously with this salad. It was round and rich yet fruity. And of course, le Rosé. A crisp, dry Provençal Rosé goes beautifully with this salad. I really enjoy Château Minuty, Château les Valentines, Château de Berne and Whispering Angel. All of these are easily accessible in the US.
I hope you have enjoyed recipe #5 of the #saladsaturdayseries, La Mentonnaise - a fennel, orange and pine nut salad with artichokes.
Here are the other salads from the series that you might enjoy:
First Week: La Salade Niçoise
Second Week: La Salade Parisienne
Third Week: La Salade Lyonnaise
Fourth Week: La Salad Tropezienne