Grapefruit and Fennel Salad
You can use a variety of olives we like to use picholine olives but if you are like my son with a serious aversion to anything too brine-y you can go for castelvetrano olives, these guys have an almost light buttery flavor. Before you think that I’m all fancy writing this, while wearing a beret and typing on my 24 carat keypad you can get these olives at Costco, Trader Joe’s or even order them on Amazon (don’t forget to shop Amazon through the Smile program and give back money to Beyond Type 1!), it’s true! You don’t need a huge amount of olives for each salad so one order will hold you over for awhile. Unless you eat them all in one day because they are basically 0g of carbs and you have a “problem” with eating them without stopping, which I might have.
- 1 jar of olives
- 2 bulbs of fresh fennel
- 1 box of arugula
- 2 red grapefruit
- Olive or avocado oil
- Salt and pepper (I like Maldon salt or sea salt)
- 1 lemon
It’s nice to peel the skin of the grapefruit off with a knife this way you can cut out the juicy segments and remove most of the white pith that adds a bitter taste to this nice little fruit. I had no idea that grapefruit was so low in carbs until I had to count every single gram as if my son’s life depended on it (because it does depend on it!). Slice the fennel as thin as you can without slicing your fingers (it happens), I like to core it then use a mandolin. Squeeze the lemon until you can’t squeeze it any more, add 1/4 cup of oil of your choosing (avocado or olive are my personal favorites).
Place the fennel in the bottom of the bowl and coat it with 1/4 of the dressing. Then place the nice and clean arugula on top. Mix these two ingredients together until incorporated. It’s likely that you will need to pit the olives, unless you want everyone to crunch down on hard pits and love going to the dentist. Next place the very fragile grapefruit segments on top. Don’t get all Swedish Chef from the Muppets when you mix the grapefruit in, be gentle with it and sort of fold it in. Save a few pieces to put on top of the salads when you are plating so you feel FANCY. Put a little more dressing on the salad as you mix the three ingredients. We go light on the dressing so this is really all up to you. It’s also nice to crack a little fresh pepper on top!
Prep time: 10-20 minutes
Grams of carbohydrates per serving:
1 large grapefruit is 15g (so eyeball the segments)
Olives 0g
Fennel 1/2 cup 3g
