Tri -Color Orange Salad With Pomegranate, Mint and a Citrus, Lemon, Vanilla Simple Syrup

It’s the height of orange season and we have been enjoying all varieties of citrus in our household. This recipe is simple, with only a few ingredients and is great for a side dish or a dessert served with a soft ripe cheese or for a brunch, like Easter. I used three different types of orange for color and flavor, a Blood orange, a Cara orange and a Navel orange. The oranges are sweet on their own, but the lemon and vanilla citrus simple syrup add another dimension. Add a little syrup or a lot, your choice. The extra simple syrup is excellent itself in cocktails. It is the peak of garden season in Miami now, so I added some Nasturtium flowers as they are the same shades of orange, yellow and red as the oranges and compliment them.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 3 minutes (simple syrup)

Cooling Time: 30 minutes

Serves 4:

Ingredients:

2 Blood orange

2 Navel orange

2 Cara orange

Seeds from 1/3 of a pomegranate

Handful of fresh mint leaves

Simple Syrup ingredients:

1/3 cup cane sugar

1/3 cup water

zest from 1/2 lemon

juice from a whole lemon

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Combine the sugar and the water in a small saucepan, bring to a simmer. Stir a minute or two until combined. Do not boil. Remove from heat. Set aside to cool. Once pan is not hot, you can speed up the process and put the pan in the refrigerator. After 30 minutes, stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract.

Peel oranges and arrange on a plate. Usually I just cut them in slices and then trim the peel off, but you can choose any method you are comfortable with. Top with mint leaves, pomegranate seeds. Drizzle with the cooled syrup. The oranges can be cut and refrigerated the day before to make serving easier the next day. The simple syrup will keep in the refrigerator covered for 1 week. Just plate your oranges, drizzle with the syrup and sprinkle the mint leaves and pomegranate seeds up to 4 hours before serving.