Simple Sides: Blood Orange & Avocado Salad with Nam Jim Dressing

Blood orange season is here! Along with pretty pink forced rhubarb blood oranges are one of my favourite rainbow ingredients that always makes January in my kitchen a hell of a lot brighter, so today I’m pairing them with equally seasonal avocados and a super addictive Thai-inspired sour, sweet and salty nam jim dressing.

The dressing comes adapted from the latest Ottolenghi book, Flavour (ad). I think it is the fact it is co-written with Ixta Belfrage who uses so many of the Mexican and Asian ingredients I adore, but it speaks to me in a way no other Ottolenghi book has done before. It started life as part of an udon noodle bowl heavy with Thai basil and crispy tofu, but I felt it deserved to be taken further than just that one recipe.

So, here the measurements will make far more of the orange nam jim dressing than you need; keep it in a jar in the fridge for up to a week as it is delicious served drizzled over salads or tossed into warm or cold noodles for lunch. I’m not kidding when I say I’m more than a little bit obsessed!

This salad would be excellent served alongside some simple grilled fish or tofu, or as part of a spread with other Asian-fusion inspired dishes.

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Blood Orange & Avocado Salad with Nam Jim Dressing

• Author: Rachel Phipps
• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 20 minutes
• Yield: Serves 2-3 1x
• Category: Sides
• Diet: Vegan

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Description

This bright a simple winter salad combines blood oranges and ripe avocado with a Thai-inspired orange nam jim dressing and a curled spring onion garnish. 

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Ingredients

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For the Blood Orange & Avocado Salad

• 3 large spring onions
• 2 navel oranges (see note)
• 2 blood oranges (see note)
• 1 large or 2 small ripe avocados

For the Nam Jim Dressing

• juice of 1 1/2 blood oranges
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp soy sauce
• 4 tsp fish sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp tamarind paste
• 1/2 tsp Aleppo chilli flakes
• 1/4 small banana shallot, finely chopped
• small handful fresh coriander, finely chopped

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Instructions

1. First, make the spring onion curls. Trim the spring onions and cut each in half down the middle. Then, shred these two shorter lengths as thin as you can into strips before transferring them to a bowl of ice water to curl. Set aside.
2. To make the dressing, whisk together all the dressing ingredients and set aside.
3. Prepare the oranges off the tops and bottoms, resting one flat bottom on the cutting board and slicing the rest of the skin off in strips, in a downward motion – and cut into slices. Peel and stone the avocado and cut it into thick wedges.
4. Arrange the orange slices and the avocado across a serving platter. Drain the spring onions and pat them dry on a piece of kitchen towel. Drizzle with salad with some of the dressing before scattering the spring onion curls over the top. Serve immediately. 

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Notes

If some of your blood oranges have really pale skins without a red tinge they’re probably more, well, orange, inside, so feel free to use these instead of naval oranges to achieve a beautiful contrast on the plate.

Keep the extra dressing in a jar in the fridge for up to a week. 

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