Arugula salad w Orange Segments, Shaved Parmesan and Sunflower Seeds. Healthy and Tasty!

It seems like all summer long we eat salads for dinner and the minute it gets colder, I start eating way less salad. Not good. This is one my favorites regardless of season though.

INGREDIENTS:

These are all pretty flexible--but I love to play around with this and I find these all go together very well.

1. 3 cups of arugula (makes about 2 servings)
2. 2 oranges, 1 1/2 for salad, 1/2 for dressing
3. 1/4 cups sunflower seeds (can substitute pine nuts)
4. 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes
5. 1/2 cup of thinly sliced fennel
6. 1 ounce or so of aged parmesan cheese
7. 1-2 tablespoons OJ
8. 1 tablespoon of lemon juice
9. 1/4 teaspoon of dijon mustard
10. 1/4 of a shallot

DIRECTIONS

1)  Wash and spin dry arugula. I am very anal about this as I loathe a soggy salad.

2)  Wash and dry cherry tomatoes.

3) Wash and dry fennel. Slice thinly.

4)  Peel orange, cut into circles, remove the white. Reserve 1/2 orange for dressing.

5) Heat small skillet, add sunflower seeds and toast them till light brown.

6) Shave your parmesan. I like to use a veggie peeler for this, it works very well. 

For dressing, squeeze juice from the reserved 1/2 of orange. If you have lemon, squeeze a bit of juice as well. Add the oil and mustard. If you are using shallot, finely chop and add in. Mix well.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl except orange segments, cheese and seeds. Dress salad, top w orange, cheese and seeds.

Enjoy!

Finished Product!!!