Skip to main content
Salad

Mesclun Salad with Radishes, Avocado and Blood Oranges

Mesclun salad with blood orange sections, sliced radishes, avocado, and a vinaigrette of blood orange juice, rice vinegar, Dijon mustard, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Orange and avocado work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 171 recipes mention both. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the oranges

  1. Working with 1 orange at a time, cut a thin slice off the top and the bottom, exposing the flesh.

  2. Stand the orange upright and, using a sharp knife, thickly cut off the peel, following the contour of the fruit and removing all the white pith and membrane.

  3. Holding the orange over a small bowl, carefully cut along both sides of each section to free it from the membrane. As you work, discard any seeds and let the sections and any juice fall into the bowl.

  4. Repeat with the second orange.

  5. When both oranges are sectioned, squeeze the membranes into the bowl to extract all of the juice.

Make the vinaigrette

  1. To make the vinaigrette, in a small bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons of the captured blood orange juice, the vinegar and the mustard.

  2. While whisking, slowly add the olive oil in a thin stream until emulsified. Whisk in the salt and pepper.

  3. Reserve any remaining orange juice for another use.

Assemble and serve

  1. In a large bowl, combine the mesclun, radishes and orange sections.

  2. Pour the vinaigrette over the salad and toss gently to mix well and coat evenly.

  3. To serve, divide the salad among individual plates. Top each portion with slices of avocado and sprinkle with the cheese.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Orange + avocadotop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together171 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Mustard + radishtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together296 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Olive + avocadotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Vinegar + mustardtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together14,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Rice + olivetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,838 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

Vinegar and mustard share little aroma chemistry, yet 14,067 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Olive oil
Forms the body of the vinaigrette and adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Dijon mustard
Acts as an emulsifier, helping the oil and juice stay blended in the dressing.
Blood oranges
Provide sweetness and acidity, plus juicy sections that brighten the salad.
Avocado
Adds creamy fat and a soft texture that balances the acidic dressing.
Blue cheese
Adds salty, pungent flavour that contrasts with the sweet citrus.
Radishes
Add crisp texture and a peppery bite to the greens.

The step that matters

Emulsifying the vinaigrette. Add the olive oil slowly in a thin stream while whisking. This breaks the oil into tiny droplets suspended in the juice and vinegar, so the dressing stays combined rather than separating on the greens.

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, rice, vinegar, olive, pepper, radish, avocado):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Cucumberbetter flavor fit
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, rice, vinegar, olive, pepper, radish, avocado. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Illustration of Chicken SaladIllustrationChicken Salad623 recipesIllustration of Salad DressingIllustrationSalad Dressing491 recipesIllustration of Tomato SaladIllustrationTomato Salad179 recipesIllustration of Cold SlawIllustrationCold Slaw160 recipes