Orange Radicchio Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing

late winter recipes and ideas ✨

Feb 28, 2025

Allô! 👋

Welcome (back) to good food at home, the monthly-ish newsletter featuring simple, seasonal, and sustainable meals, tips, and ideas. For more recipes, cooking Q&As + access to the full archive, consider supporting the newsletter by also signing up to seasonal sundays, the fortnightly supplement that focuses on fresh produce at its peak!

Ah, February. The short month where the days are still bitingly cold (and, quite often, gloomily grey), but where — by mid-month especially — any ruffled confrontation with unpleasant weather is softened by a growing awareness that the evenings are becoming noticeably longer with each passing day.

While winter may not be over quite yet, spring is most certainly already in sight.

the thrill of the year’s first sunset past 5pm!

For me, this prompts a pleasant and predictable urge to up my citrus and chicory consumption before the peak window for savouring them passes me by.

Radicchio especially is so wonderful at this time of year. (If you have access to a diverse array of radicchio varieties, all the better, though ol’ reliable di Chioggia is delightful on its own as well).

It’s a good time for hardy leeks too and, if you live in Norway like me, you should also be paying attention to fresh skrei* (Atlantic cod) and, of course, fastelavnsboller (Shrove Sunday buns).

*Skrei tongues (not pictured) are especially tasty, simply fried in butter and seasoned with salt and pepper, so long as you are able to forget and/or overcome the fact that you are eating fish tongues while you are eating fish tongues

Personally, I am especially appreciative of late winter when it comes to produce because it is the time for blood oranges. And I adore blood oranges.

These, of course, do not grow locally, so they offer not only a revitalising burst of much-needed sunshine whenever enjoyed, but also a good dose of gratitude for international collaboration and hardworking food workers all the world ‘round.

I’d hate to think of where we’d be without them — the blood oranges, the cross-border exchanges, and the people who keep us well-nourished and fed.

This month’s recipe is another that I developed a little while ago, during my time in France, as renovations are still ongoing at home and my cooking work must sit on the back burner still a little while longer.

Luckily, just as the brightening days of late winter leave me hopeful for a new spring that I know for sure will come (it always does), the progress we’re making at home keeps me optimistic that I’ll soon again have the chance to spend quality time cooking in the kitchen (see those floors in the very first photo, and in the one just below? they used to be grey! I sanded them on my hands and knees!) .

In a time when uncertainty seems to loom in every which direction (turning on the news or opening up social media alone seems an exercise in anxiety roulette), I find these two events — the arrival of spring and the end of our renovations — comforting certainties to look forward to and to hold.

In this year’s February issue of good food at home, you'll find some late winter recipes from the newsletter and site, as well as a citrusy chicory recipe for a radicchio and orange salad with honey mustard dressing. There’s a few nifty links at the end too, so do keep scrolling.

To access recipes marked with a 👋+, feel free to subscribe to seasonal sundays, the bi-monthly supplement to this newsletter that features food at its peak. (It costs less than £1/week with an annual subscription, supports the newsletter, and the first 7 days are free! You can also get free access by sharing the newsletter).

As always, thank you for being here.

Wishing you a healthy start to March and some wonderful meals ahead,

— Simone

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it's late winter: what to cook? 🧣

By this point in the food growing year, especially in northern latitudes, not much fresh produce is available from local farms. This is, after all, the time for preparing the garden, not harvesting it.

Preserved pantry goods, stored root cellar veg, and seasonal products from farms, forests, and seas are our friends, and so are food growers in more Mediterranean climates.

In mid- to late winter, fresh citrus fruits like oranges and newly harvested chicories like radicchio truly offer a sweet respite from the abundance of pantry and stored roots that have become stalwarts of the in-season kitchen.

leek, white bean & celeriac soup 🥄

An easy soup, enjoyed with or without its green herby drizzle, that makes for simple comforting satisfaction on any dreary day.

go to recipe

lemon madeleines 🍋
with a blood orange glaze

If you don’t have a madeleine pan, worry not — a cupcake tin (or even individual muffin moulds) are all you need to help bring these sweet little treats to life.

go to recipe

rosemary spiced nuts 🥜

An easy peasy pantry snack that’ll keep you and your guests coming back and back (and back).

go to recipe 👋+

the caramelised onion pie 🥧

Don’t feel limited by the mention of onion in the title — other alliums like shallots also feel well at home in this delightful store-cupboard tart.

go to recipe

…and more:

variations on pasta e ceci
a pomelo endive salad 👋+
leeks vinaigrette on creamy white beans
radicchio & walnut pasta, with red onions and pangrattato 👋+
blood orange and beetroot olive oil chocolate cake 👋+
shortcut citrus “sorbet”

all newsletter recipes!

the late winter salad 🍊

A simple citrus-y, shallot-y and chicory salad, perfectly suited for mid- to late winter days.

Make this on repeat with different chicories and citrus fruits (blood oranges have a short season, and the time for them is now!), depending on what’s available, what you enjoy, and what you’re in the mood for.

CITRUS & CHICORY SALAD
with a honey mustard dressing

serves one

INGREDIENTS

• a few leaves each from 2-4 varieties of chicory (Belgian endive, red endive, or radicchio such as Rosso di Chioggia, Variegato di Castelfranco, Rosa del Veneto, Rosso di Treviso, Rosso di Verona)
• a few leaves each from 1-2 varieties of baby head lettuce (Green or Red Little Gem, Oakleaf, Butterhead, or Lolla Rossa)
• a small handful of pecans
• a few stems each of fresh parsley, chives, and dill
• 1 orange (Valencia, Navel, Cara Cara, Moro, Tarocco, Sanguinello), or 2 halves
• 1/2 small banana shallot
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp mayonnaise*
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• sea salt
• freshly cracked black pepper
• Parmesan (optional)

*the mayonnaise is optional but I quite enjoy it; you won’t really know it’s there, but it’ll add heft to the dressing and helps it cling better to your citrus and leaves

note: I’m a bit of a wuss when it comes to strong mustard (I was raised on French’s yellow mustard — very mild, very yellow). If you instead adore the proper punch of Dijon mustard, feel free to add at least one extra teaspoon of it to the dressing

METHOD

1. Wash and dry your leaves. Gently tear the outermost leaves off the stem of a few different varieties of chicory and young baby lettuces, enough to sate your appetite. Return the chicory and lettuce heads to the refrigerator, in a tightly sealed container or reusable bag, for another salad on another day.

Add the leaves to a bowl, cover with very cold water, swirl around to loosen any soil, then leave to sit 5-10 minutes while you prepare the citrus and dressing. Once cool and crisp, lift out the leaves (leaving any soil or debris behind) and transfer them to a salad spinner, then spin again and again until nicely dry.

2. Toast some nuts. Place a small pan over medium-low heat. Add in a handful of pecans, then leave them to dry toast, shaking and swirling and tossing about regularly, until fragrant, around 6 minutes or so. Transfer to a small bowl once satisfied with their doneness, to avoid the nuts burning as they sit in the pan’s residual heat.

note: I love pecans, but if all you have (and enjoy) are, say, sunflower seeds, then feel free to make a swap

3. Chop some herbs. While the nuts toast, grab a small bundle of fresh parsley, chives, and dill (a few stems of each), then roughly chop up their leaves and finely chop up their stems. (For the chives, there is no distinction — simply separate a portion to use in the dressing.)

4. Segment an orange and make the dressing. Grab an orange (or two), slice away its peel, then cut it into segments. Squeeze the juice from the remaining orange(s) into a large bowl. Peel half a small banana shallot, then slice it into thin rings. Add these to the freshly squeezed orange juice, along with a teaspoon each of Dijon mustard, honey, mayonnaise, and apple cider vinegar, plus one tablespoon of olive oil and the stems from the freshly chopped herbs. Season with salt and black pepper, give everything a good stir, then dip in a leaf of lettuce or chicory to give the dressing a taste. Adjust the balance of ingredients to your preference if necessary.

5. Assemble and enjoy. Add the chicory and lettuce leaves, orange segments, toasted nuts, and chopped herb leaves to the bowl with the dressing and gently toss everything together with your hands. Eat straight out of the mixing bowl or plate up onto a clean dish, showering a small mountain of microplaned Parmesan over top if you like (if not — crush over a bit of flaky salt). Grab a fork and a seat, and enjoy straight away.

A refreshing late winter staple, best enjoyed on repeat with varying varieties of citrus and chicories until the season ends.

last, but not least:

the public health corner 🔗

In case you didn’t know, public health is my jam (more on that here, here, and here) — it informs everything I do! And, as always, I like to leave you with a few parting links relating to the topic, as food for thought:
　