Here is my cabbage and orange salad, the recipe I chose for today’s release of Light and Tasty.

Today’s ingredient is ‘citrus fruits’, and I must confess it was a tough choice, I changed my mind a thousand times to decide on the recipe! 😄 I had two potential recipes, plus a third one I specifically cooked this morning and then… nothing, in the end I decided this cabbage and orange salad was the best recipe for today because it was definitely the Lightest of all! 😃

This salad, in my quest for the perfect recipe to… sail through goats and cabbages (😂) …I mean to allow myself to eat a cruciferous without having to ‘argue’ with the rest of the family… well, this cabbage and orange salad I can say comes close to perfection, since while I was eating no one complained! 😁 And I enjoyed it with satisfaction because the oranges really combine very well with the cabbage.
Ahhh how far away those times seem now when it seemed so strange to use oranges in a salad! Remember?, I told you the anecdote in the fennel and orange salad, my first salad in which I tried the use of orange.

Without salt And then, not to be forgotten, using citrus fruits in cooking is a valuable aid in salt-free cooking. This salad therefore gathers two tips in one: using citrus fruits, and eating crucifers, whose strong flavor allows us to use less (or no) salt. But I’ll explain more about this after the recipe.

Are you ready? Watch out, it’s a very difficult recipe eh! 😃

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Other ideas for a simple and quick salad: 👇

Difficulty: Very Easy
Cost: Very Cheap
Preparation time: 5 Minutes
Portions: 1
Cooking methods: No Cooking
Cuisine: Italian
Seasonality: Autumn, Winter

Ingredients

I didn’t weigh the ingredients, I just filled a bowl with cabbage to which I added the orange. Therefore, beyond being Light and Tasty, this is an Easy recipe! 😃

savoy cabbage
orange
extra virgin olive oil
balsamic vinegar (in cream)

Tools

Salad Bowl
Knife

Preparation

Of course, you guessed that the ‘very difficult recipe’ is there for a laugh. 😊 In reality, it doesn’t require much explanation, the instructions are only 3:
1. wash and spin the cabbage and cut it into strips
2. peel the orange live and slice it
3. put everything in a bowl and season with oil and balsamic vinegar, I used the cream version but traditional also works.
Serve immediately!
Variants and suggestions:
🔸 You can replicate this cabbage and orange salad also with white cabbage
🔹 Or you can enrich it with apples, or even with oil seeds (sunflower, sesame, or pumpkin seeds) or with nuts like almonds or walnuts.
🔸 You can spice it up, like the spiced white cabbage salad where the simple addition of a pinch of ginger powder and cinnamon turned a side dish into a really excellent Christmas appetizer.
🔹 Also, I suggest another alternative, suitable for those of you who love strong flavors: it’s a recipe I’m finishing writing so… see you tomorrow! (Here it is, it’s the salad of black cabbage, apple, and orange).

Salt-free Tips

All crucifers have a characteristic intense flavor that allows us to fully enjoy their taste even without salt, and the contrast with the taste of orange helps us a lot.

Moreover, to flavor this salad without using salt, another very valuable aid comes from dried fruits and seeds. Remember that if you can’t yet (not yet, it’s just a matter of time!) eliminate added salt, the top-of-the-line flavor enhancer you can always rely on is gomasio, that taste miracle made from sesame seeds (the recipe is –> HERE ).

In reminding you of my usual salt-free tips, I give you an appointment for tomorrow with the new recipe/variant. 🙂

If you are interested in reducing or eliminating salt, always remember to:
▫ Reduce salt gradually, the palate needs to get used to it slowly and should not notice the gradual reduction.
▫ Use spices. Chili, pepper, curry, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, cumin…
▫ Use herbs. Basil, parsley, oregano, thyme, sage, marjoram, rosemary, mint…
▫ Use seeds. Sesame, pine nuts, almonds, walnuts…
▫ Use spicy vegetables or fruit. Garlic, onion, lemon, orange…
▫ Use my salt-free vegetable granules
▫ Prefer fresh foods.
▫ Avoid water cooking methods, prefer methods that do not disperse flavors (grilling, en papillote, steaming, microwave)
▫ Avoid bringing the salt shaker to the table!
▫ Sometimes allow yourself a break from the rule. It is good for mood and helps to persevere.

If you do not want, or cannot, give up salt:
▫ You can still try my recipes by salting them according to your habits.