In L.A., vibrant winter salads taste like spring

I love to cozy up at home with a long braise, or to warm the house with sweet spices wafting from a carrot cake or gingerbread in the oven. And beef stew was like my theme song this winter. But right now, as the East Coast continues to be pummeled with massive amounts of snow, we here in Southern California can’t deny reality. It’s hot out there. It’s salad time!

Even though it’s warm, it’s not summer. We Angelenos appreciate the subtle differences in the seasons. The light low in the sky. The scent of orange blossoms perfuming our neighborhoods. It’s dark at six. So hold off on those out-of-season heirloom tomatoes. Now’s the time to embrace winter salads. But not those warming, heavy salads called “winter salads” that are weighed down with roasted vegetables and great for, say, January.

I’m talking about salads that are as bright and refreshing as a summer salad but take advantage of California’s late winter-to-spring bounty: grapefruit, beets, fennel, radishes, oranges and soon, very soon, artichokes and local avocados. Fresh choices that sparkle with flavor and conjure up the essence of spring: hope and possibility.

There are innumerable salads that can be made of beets. Bulgur and Moroccan spices turn carrots, a workhorse of the kitchen, into a vibrant salad. Radishes are so pretty they earned the hashtag #radishporn and add a flavorful bite to any salad. (By the way, have you ever roasted a radish? If not, do!) And oranges! Oranges in salads are so dazzling and bursting with flavor that they remind us that they were once considered such a delicacy that King Louis XIV built his orangery at the Palace of Versailles.

Now, if you really want to fire up your oven, this Pot-Roasted Lamb with Fennel and Potatoes from former Food editor Russ Parsons perfectly marries winter and spring. Suzanne Tracht’s Pot Roast at Jar, proves that comfort food knows no season. And if you want your stove on for more than 12 hours, who am I to stop you when there’s this Crackling Roast Pork Shoulder with Fennel and Chile from Peads & Barnetts farm?

Meanwhile, you can find me picking from a rainbow of carrots, radishes and beets as beautiful as a bouquet of flowers.

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Salad Of Oranges, Quinoa, Radishes And Feta

We take them for granted, but oranges were once considered such a delicacy that King Louis XIV built his orangery at Versailles as a display of wealth. Russ Parsons pays tribute to the most basic of them all, the good ol’ naval orange, in this refreshing quinoa salad, with radishes and fennel.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 55 minutes. Serves 4 to 6.

(Los Angeles Times)

Beet And Fennel Salad

Roasted beets and fennel is a winning combination, and even better with the addition of walnuts. This recipe is from a cookbook for a writer’s retreat, during which each woman gets her own cabin to create for a period of time, in the dreamy woods of the Pacific Northwest. The rest of us, we can make the salad and daydream. (PS: Goat cheese is welcome here.)
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Cook time: 50 minutes. Serves 6 to 8.

(Los Angeles Times)

Wild Arugula And Orange Salad With Baked Feta, Honey And Za’atar

Cheese and honey is one of the great all-time pairings. Cookbook author Jeanne Kelley bakes the cheese in this recipe before drizzling it with honey, and combines it with arugula and beets, thereby allowing the whole melange to be called a salad. Now that’s a friend.
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Cook time: 25 minutes. Serves 4.

(Los Angeles Times)

August’s Charred Broccoli Salad

The salad consists of charred broccoli, bringing out the vegetable’s natural and underrated sweetness with orange and grapefruit supremes and pungent feta cheese. It’s the picture of Southern California winter, though, ironically, the recipe came from August, a restaurant named after summer and located in New Orleans (Louisiana is a lesser-known citrus-growing state.)
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Cook time: 45 minutes. Serves 4 to 6.

Cambodian Pomelo Salad

Pomelos are one of the three original citrus varieties. (The other two being Mandarins and Citrons.) They’re similar to grapefruit, but sweeter and less acidic. Pomelo segments are just one component in this refreshing crunchy vegetable salad that is bursting with the flavor and texture contrasts of peanuts, coconut and loads of fresh herbs. If you can’t find pomelo, substitute grapefruit, oranges or a combination.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 40 minutes. Serves 4.

(Los Angeles Times)