Radish, Fennel, and Grapefruit Salad is Like Spring in a Bowl

ed. note: This recipe is from our interview with Chef Seamus Mullen. Seamus served this bright and citrus-y radish, fennel, and grapefruit salad as one of the family-style dishes at a dinner party he hosted in Santa Monica, California earlier this year. It’s made from just a handful of spring’s freshest ingredients, and comes together as so much more than the sum of its parts. Peppery radish and fennel are balanced by the richness of the avocado for a first course or side dish that pairs perfectly with roast chicken, salmon, or Seamus’s lamb meatballs.

First things first: if you’ve been holding off on purchasing a mandoline because it seemed too fancy, chef-y, or just like one more gadget than you needed in your kitchen… let this recipe be your motivation to finally click that buy button. It makes quick work of this gorgeous brimming-with-spring salad by slicing up the radish and fennel at lighting-fast speed. Just take it from Seamus and be careful: he might have used this cooking demo as an opportunity to whip out his phone and show us an old mandoline accident from years ago where he sliced off a bit of finger, and let’s just say: it ain’t pretty.

Cutting out the grapefruit supremes is a slightly more time-intensive way of prepping your citrus, but it’s worth it for the elegance of presenting this dish without any of the white pith clinging to your slices. (Here’s a little tutorial on supreming citrus fruit if you’ve never done it — it’s a perfect kitchen skill to master during your quarantine.) Plus, by letting the grapefruit juice drip into a bowl while you’re supreme-ing, you’ve already made half your vinaigrette!

Scroll on for the recipe for this radish, fennel, and grapefruit salad, and don’t miss Seamus’s secrets to healthy, delicious and laid-back gatherings here.