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Maple Chili Blood Orange Salad

Jedd has been making himself a spinach salad every morning for breakfast along with his eggs. Which to me just makes good sense, because greens are refreshing – which is what you want when your feet first hit the floor.

We also both like a decent amount of citrus in the morning. Although he wins for sheer volume, because he eats oranges like potato chips. Meanwhile, my favorite breakfast (until last week) used to be a couple of pieces of sausage and an orange.

Then, I came down with the flu a couple of weeks ago.

And now and I can’t stand sausage.

To put this into context, I hadn’t been that sick since Britney and Justin broke up, “The Sopranos” ended with a fade to black, and “tweeting” meant “birds chirping.”

So, it hadn’t remotely occurred to me that being so stuffed up could influence my taste buds like that. I’m going to try sausage for the third time this week, and if it still doesn’t appeal to me – I’m going to start eating foods that I dislike. Who knows? Now I might love mushrooms! I might love kidney beans! Hello, crab cakes! Come to Mama.

Who knows how the next few weeks might shake out. But one thing I do know, is that this salad is perfect any time of day. It’s sweet, it’s savory, it’s a little nutty, and it’s completely delicious.

Maple Chili Blood Orange Salad

Serves 2.

Ingredients:

3 cups washed baby spinach

1 medium blood orange, peeled and cut into ¼-inch slices

2 tablespoons roughly chopped pistachios

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons “Grade A” (dark amber) maple syrup

2 teaspoons lemon juice

½ teaspoon chili powder

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

Divide spinach, orange slices, and pistachios between two plates.

In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, maple syrup, lemon juice, chili powder, salt and pepper.

Drizzle dressing over the salads.

(Photos by Launie Kettler)

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