A Cheery Salad for Dreary Winter Days

Award-winning cooking instructor Kate Sonders Solomon ’00 offers hands-on classes for kids, adults, and corporate teams. Her virtual classes, which she began teaching in 2020, “took off like wildfire,” she says. “My career really boomed during the pandemic.”

Solomon’s clients include several Smith clubs and the Office of Alumnae Relations. Here, she shares her recipe for a hearty and bright winter salad. The sweetness of the citrus pairs well with the heady and robust Roquefort, she says, while the earthy hazelnuts provide contrast to the tangy shallots.

WINTER FRISÉE SALAD

Serves 4 to 6

1/2 cup hazelnuts
6 cups frisée (from 1 large head), or other tender leafy greens, torn into bite-size pieces
2 heads endive, halved and thinly sliced
1 small shallot, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons chives
1 Cara Cara or naval orange, suprêmed
4 ounces Roquefort or other good-quality blue cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon honey
Kosher salt and ground pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a baking pan, toast hazelnuts in one layer for 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly colored and skins are blistered. Wrap nuts in a kitchen towel and let steam 1 minute. Rub nuts in the towel to remove loose skin. Cool completely and chop roughly. 
2. Toss frisée, endive, shallot, chives, and orange suprêmes in a large bowl. Add the Roquefort and cooled hazelnuts.
3. Whisk the olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, honey, salt, and pepper to make the vinaigrette. Drizzle on salad and toss to coat.

This story appears as part of the Smithies Create column in the Winter 2022 issue of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly.

Photograph by Doug Schneider