I find that it’s important to cook with color in the winter months. It keeps me hopeful for spring. Drab days call for exciting food.

And who really likes to eat salad in the winter? It’s not exactly my “go to” lunch come late February. But throw some mint and cilantro in there, fabulous fennel and seasonal citrus… now there’s a salad!

The picture of this salad in Bon Appetit is what won me over. I loved the pomegranate with the herbs. But with a few blood oranges on hand, I thought I would take matters into my hands.

Fennel and Quinoa Salad with Pomegranate and Blood Orange (adapted from Bon Appetit January 2012)
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium fennel bulbs cut length wise sliced thin
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice (about one lemon)
1 1/2 ground cumin
1 tsp sugar
1 cup quinoa, rinsed
1 blood orange segmented (original recipe used lemon)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro chopped
1/2 cup fresh mint chopped
1 tbsp chopped fennel fronds (original recipe used dill)
Seeds from 1/2 pomegranate
(Bon Appetit also included Serrano chilies which I was so sad to forget at the store, but I don’t think the salad even needed them!)

Click here to read entire post and get step by step instructions with photos!