SERVES: 4
TIME: 15 MINUTES
A childhood favorite of mine, this salad never had a proper name, only “the orange juice salad.” My parents and I ate endless amounts of it during that time of year when the pavement sizzled and nobody dared to turn on the stove. According to my mother it’s a Venezuelan specialty—fresh chunks of summer fruit swimming in orange juice—but I’ll always think of humid New England summers spent sipping the fruity juices from the bottom of the bowl. Favorite way to eat it: ladled into a big mug, with a spoon handy for snacking while catching up on summer reading.
My modern version gilds the orange juice with a touch of lime juice, agave nectar, and vanilla extract, but the fruit selection is nearly the same. Change the fruit as the seasonal selection shifts: tiny plums instead of nectarines, and skip the grapes if blueberries are on sale. Sometimes we’d throw in a diced banana or some sliced strawberries, but, after a day of soaking in juice, these can get a little soggy, so consider yourself warned.
3 cups freshly squeezed or store-bought orange juice
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon agave nectar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large nectarines
2 large red plums
1 large green apple
1 cup seedless green grapes
1 pint blueberries
ORANGE CRÈME CUPS
Top each cup with a big dollop of vanilla coconut yogurt right before serving!
1 In a 2-quart glass or plastic pitcher, whisk together the orange juice, lime juice, agave nectar, and vanilla extract.
2 Remove the cores and seeds from the nectarines, plums, and apple. Slice the fruit into bite-size pieces, transferring the fruit chunks directly into the orange juice as you slice them. Slice the grapes in half and add those along with the whole blueberries into the juice. Cover and chill for 30 minutes, then ladle the fruit and juice into large mugs and serve with a spoon.