Winter Fruit Salad with Whole Wheat Orzo and Arugula

Well my first week of the 10 in 10 challenge went pretty well. I have already been going to the gym 4-5 days a week since last summer, but I have intensified my workouts and I am eating way better and drinking less wine. Hopefully I continue on the straight path and with dishes like this it shouldn't be too hard. The other day I had a particularly difficult training session. In fact, I am still feeling it right now although I was able to power through yesterday and do day 2 of couch to 5K. I told ya'll I'm on a mission. Anyway, I was so happy to have this recipe to fuel my afternoon. Diana has been on a quinoa kick lately. I went through my quinoa kick last year so I wanted to mix it up a bit and try something different. Plus, my quinoa was looking a little funky. I had a great trip to the Hollywood farmers market last weekend and picked up many goodies, including all the stuff for this salad minus the oil, vinegar, dijon, and salt and pepper. As regular readers know, I like to keep my blog and ingredients as fresh and local as possible. Having year-round farmers markets not only makes it easy, but it keeps costs down since I am on a pretty tight budget. I sort of suck at segmenting oranges, and I only picked up one so I added some clementines to the mix. Last year my fruit obsession was pomegranate, this year it's clementines. I can't get enough of those little cuties. Since I had just picked up some whole wheat orzo, I used that in place of the quinoa and a bit of the clementine juice to replace my orange juice. This salad is awesome. It's fruity and filling and easy on the wallet. It will have you feeling full without weighing you down and it's perfect to recharge after a hard workout. I couldn't get enough. I am ready for week two and looking forward to new challenges the 10 in 10 will bring.



Winter Fruit Salad with Whole Wheat Orzo and Arugula
(Adapted from Diana Takes a Bite)



Makes 2 servings

Salad
1 cup cooked whole wheat orzo, at room temperature
2 shallots, sliced
1 cara cara orange, segmented and juices reserved
2-3 clementines, peeled and separated
1 fuyu persimmon, cut into chunks
1-2 handfuls pomegranate arils
2 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese
2 handfuls arugula

Dressing
1/2 teaspoon clementine zest
3 tablespoons citrus juice (In this case from the cara cara orange and the clementines)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Salt, pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Slice shallots into thin rings and then roast (without oil) until crispy (approximately 20-30 minutes).

Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing and season to taste.

When shallots are done, mix orzo, persimmon, pomegranate seeds, orange segments and arugula with the dressing. Plate, then top with the shallots and feta cheese.

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