Grapefruit Salad

Week 374. Spring 2023. I am 40 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like fresh herbs and possibility and this is my life. This is the life I built.

Brett came Wednesday. We sat on the porch and talked about nothing, and the nothing was perfect, the way nothing between siblings is always perfect — full of history, empty of agenda, the purest form of company.

Mason is 12 and reading everything he can find and examining the world under a microscope with the intensity of a tenured researcher.

Lily is 10 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.

I made spring pea risotto this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.

Spring pea risotto was on the stove this week, but the salad I made alongside it — this grapefruit salad, cold and bright and almost aggressively fresh — was the thing that stopped me in my tracks. It tasted like the season itself: sharp at first, then sweet, then just clean. That’s what spring does. That’s what 374 weeks of showing up does. Here’s the recipe I’ll keep coming back to.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 15 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 large ruby red grapefruits, peeled and segmented
5 oz mixed spring greens
1 avocado, thinly sliced
1/4 red onion, very thinly sliced
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon flaky sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Segment the grapefruit. Using a sharp knife, cut the top and bottom off each grapefruit, then slice away the peel and pith following the curve of the fruit. Hold the grapefruit over a bowl and cut between the membranes to release each segment. Reserve 1 tablespoon of the juice for the dressing.
Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, honey, white wine vinegar, and reserved grapefruit juice until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper.
Assemble the salad. Arrange the spring greens on a large serving platter or in a wide bowl. Layer the grapefruit segments, avocado slices, and red onion evenly over the top.
Finish and serve. Scatter the fresh mint leaves and crumbled feta over the salad. Drizzle the dressing evenly over everything just before serving. Toss gently at the table, or serve as-is for a more composed presentation.

Nutrition (per serving)

Grapefruit Salad — The Food That Carries Us Forward