Tricolour salad | orange feta layered salad

Put together an effortlessly simple layered salad with orange spinach and feta for this Indian Independence day celebrations. Keep up the spirit with this citrus tricolour salad.

When you move away from the countries of your origin,your association with the country feels a bit more like an undercurrent. These sentiments don’t really surface when I visit India, rather when I come back. I guess it is because when I am there, I am so busy absorbing the sights, sounds, people and the love. Coming from this recent visit  rather from the sunny burst of love to bleak winter, I guess I miss it more this year. So, as a rare occurrence I decided to jump into the tricolour journey with some simple recipes to add up to the Indian Independence celebration. Today we made a easy tricolour salad representing the colours of the Indian flag. Here it is for you.

Ingredients to make tricolour salad

This salad is not just easy on the eyes but a good way to absorb nutrients and iron from the spinach. It comes together easily.

Oranges: oranges or mandarins that arr in season are perfect for this recipe. Currently I have used navel oranges. They have a milder citrus punch and are in season. Choose one with a good weight as it will be juicer. You can use mandarins, blood oranges, Cara cara or tangerines based on what is available.

Spinach: baby spinach is lovely in the salad as it has a soft texture that complements the oranges well. You can chose arugula, beet green or a mix of leafy Greens. I avoid using watercress as it is a bit too strong for the salad.

Feta: crumbly Greek feta has the salty intensity to compensate the sweet juiciness of the oranges. If vegan,  use vegan feta like biocheese or vegan life available to you. Among other cheese varieties that are suitable, you can try medium cheddar or goat cheese.

Dressing: bring up the flavour to the best for this orange salad using oranges again. Again, it is an oil free dressing that keeps well. orange juice , salt,  pepper, mustard, honey (use a pinch of sugar if vegan), dried mint and crushed shallots are the ingredients. Y0u can vary the mint to chives or parsley as per your flavour liking.

Let’s make tricolour salad

Prep the orange: since we are using the navel oranges, it is fairly easier to clean and prep the slices. Slice off the top and bottom. Using a sharp knife slice off the peel along with the white pith exposing the juicy segments. Once the segments are exposed cut them into rounds as thin as you can. If this sounds complicated, you can simply make wedges to layer the salad.

Clean the spinach: Baby spinach can be picked up pre-washed if you like. Still pick through them to ensure they are good quality. Rinse them and spin dry so they are clean and not clingy.

Layer the salad: the salad looks pretty when layered. Lay down a small bed of spinach to cover the plate. Add the orange slices towards the centre. Sprinkle the crumpled feta (or vegan feta) around the orange slices. This creates the three colours.

Pour the dressing : juice up half a fresh orange than a bottle of juice. the dressing ingredients can be poured into a small bottle and shaken. Then pour the dressing evenly around the salad.

Meal prep and lunch boxes

I love the citrus burst in my lunch box. It is not only a light idea but on that keep a happy mode on. For meal prep, I clean the spinach and set them ready, but don’t really make the salad till that day. Tha main reason being spinach that goes limp does not taste good.  However it stays well for 24 hours when refrigerated.

Other tricolour recipes

We don’t have much of tricolour recipes on this blog. However I hope you like this blanched carrot salad recipe that comes close.

Stay connected

How are you planning to celebrate Independence day. Along the path I do think that I should think of a few more recipes that will invoke a bit of colourful patriotism in me! While I work on that thought let me know if you enjoyed this recipe for the tricolour salad in comments. Don’t miss to tag me with your creations for this Indepence day as you never know when one can be truly inspired.
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Happy Independence and stay connected.