Here’s a light, refreshing, simple salad to make. Tender, peppery baby arugula, creamy avocado, sweet-tart grapefruit sections, crunchy pepitas and creamy-salty Manchego cheese, dressed with a light grapefruit vinaigrette. It’s a great 5 Tastes Table side salad!

Ingredients:

• Baby arugula rinsed (one small handful per person as a side salad)

• 1 Grapefruit sections removed; juice reserved

• 1 Avocado

• Pepitas (toasted Pumpkin seeds)

• Manchego Cheese

• Salt and pepper

• olive oil

• honey

• red wine vinegar

• Grapefruit Vinaigrette (recipe below)

Preparation:

1. Rinse the arugula and place a small handful on each person’s salad plate

2. Cut the Grapefruit in half and using a small spoon (a fruit spoon is perfect) remove the grapefruit sections reserving the juice. Squeeze out any remaining juice in the grapefruit into a small bowl after removing the sections. (Note: if you place the grapefruit in a small bowl, you can save the juice and the sections in the bowl while you work. Reserve the juice for the vinaigrette. You want about ¼ cup of juice for the vinaigrette recipe below.

3. After you remove the seed from the avocado, cut each half of the avocado in half again. To peel and slice, place each quarter avocado (with the peel on) flat side face-down and slice each quarter into three slices. Gently remove the peel from each slice; reserve the slices.

4. If your Pepitas are not already toasted, toast them in a pan on the stove or in a toaster oven monitoring them carefully so they don’t burn. Use about 1 or 2 teaspoons of seeds per individual salad.

5. Using the coarse face on a box grater, grate the Manchego so you have about ½ tablespoon per individual salad.

6. Plate each salad with the arugula; place 2 or 3 slices of avocado and a tablespoon of grapefruit sections on top of the arugula; garnish with pepitas and Manchego; drizzle with vinaigrette. Sprinkle ground black pepper to taste.

Grapefruit Vinaigrette:

• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 1/4 cup fresh grapefruit juice

• 4 teaspoons honey

• 4 teaspoons red wine or Jerez vinegar (the Jerez is more acidic)

• Whisk oil, grapefruit juice, honey, and vinegar in a large bowl until well blended. Season vinaigrette to taste with salt and pepper.