Spring Citrus Salad with Avocado & Pistachios

Name: Spring Citrus Salad with Avocado & Pistachios
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Cuisine: Moroccan
Ingredients: 1 blood orange; 1 naval orange; 2 tbsp pistachios, shelled and crushed; 1 avocado; 1/2 tsp cinnamon; a pinch of salt; 1 tbsp honey

by Salima Benkhalti on Mar 20, 2019 (updated May 23, 2024)

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It’s *officially* the first day of spring and the perfect occasion for this raw Spring Citrus Salad with creamy avocado, crunchy pistachios, and a drizzle of local honey. This green spin on the traditional Moroccan Citrus Salad made with cinnamon and sugar is light and refreshing in every way.

Oranges and blood oranges sliced on a plate with avocados, pistachios, and honey

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Celebrate citrus season

Winter is the season for all things citrus!

Lemons, limes, oranges, clementines, blood oranges, they’re all ripe and fresh in your local grocery store. What better way to highlight this colorful variety of fruit than a raw salad with creamy avocado, crunchy pistachios, and a drizzle of local honey?

Oranges, blood oranges, and lemons with leaves on a white background

Moroccan Desserts

In Morocco, the majority of the traditional desserts are made with puff pastry, sesame seeds, ground almonds, other nuts and (can you guess?) lots of gluten.

They’re truly delicious and definitely a refreshing spin on the average American cookie. My aunt serves them with mint tea in the afternoon.

I always gravitated towards the other kind of Moroccan desserts. The kind we had every night immediately after dinner.

Fruit

In Morocco, fruit is treated like a dessert. Because of that, we eat a lot of it. As we should everywhere!

It’s highlighted with simple ingredients like cinnamon or honey and served on large lavish platters, cut in beautiful designs.

This Spring Citrus Salad is a spin on a beautiful dessert my aunt makes with cinnamon, honey, and orange slices.

It’s all about the knife cuts

Now, when I set out to recipe test for this Citrus Salad, I was way underestimating this salad. I thought, “I’m just going to grab some oranges, peel them, slice them, and they will look awesome.”

And look how awesome it turned out:

Blood orange slices with orange slices and honey

I mean, the colors are beautiful and everything but I just can’t get over the white stuff (just googled it, apparently it’s called pith). It looked nothing like my aunt’s and the pith (which it turns out is actually pretty great for you) had a texture that was distracting to the appearance and texture of the salad.

And so, before conducting Recipe Testing Round 2, I called my dad and consulted with my aunt on their orange slicing technique.

All the way from Morocco, I deliver to you, the most effective way to cut beautifully sliced oranges, pith free:

First, start by slicing off the tops and bottoms of your oranges

Next, carve down the sides of the orange, just deep enough to remove the pith and peel. Repeat until every side of the orange flesh is showing

Then if any pith remains, trim it off.

Finally, slice your orange lengthwise to make round circular slices, and you’re set!