Turkey Salad with Orange, Celery Root and Cashews

Preparing the ingredients

1. Homemade turkey salad is quick and easy to make, but preparing the meat and celery root takes some time. You can buy turkey breast: it’s a bit dry but fine for a salad. The best option is leg meat with the membranes and “needles” (tendons) removed.

2. Get the ingredients ready: turkey, celery root, vegetables, orange, olives and a few toasted cashews or peanuts; almonds work too.

   

3. Cook the celery root: boil the whole root in lightly salted water until tender, when a knife goes in easily, or roast it in the oven. Once it cools, peel it and cut into strips.

Grilled turkey

1. Prepare the meat: rinse and pat dry, trim off any remaining membranes, fat, bones or cartilage. Cut the meat into strips and pound lightly so it’s no more than 1 cm thick.

2. Grill the turkey on both sides until cooked through and browned, in a well-heated grill pan; it’s done when the juices run clear at a cut. If you have a barbecue with hot coals, the grilled turkey will be especially fragrant; at home, a grill pan works great.

   

3. Cool and cut the meat: let it cool to room temperature, then cut it across the grain into cubes or thick strips, as you prefer.

Assembling the salad

1. Mix the meat with the celery root and onion: slice the sweet onion into rings or strips, then mix the meat, celery root and onion in a salad bowl. Salt lightly and add a pinch of oregano.

   

   Stir and let it sit for a few minutes for the salt to dissolve.

2. Add the chili, cashews and olives: slice a chili pod into rings and add it to the bowl. Mexican salads are usually noticeably hot. I suggest making the turkey salad with chili, as much as you like. If you don’t have fresh chili, add a pinch of dried.

   I add cashews toasted in a dry pan (over medium heat, stirring, until lightly golden); they’re delicious. Along with the nuts, add olives, preferably green pitted ones.

   

3. Add the orange and cilantro: peel a large juicy orange and separate it into segments, cutting as much of the white membrane off each segment as you can: it’s tough and will stand out in the salad. Alternatively, cut the orange the way citrus is prepared for Sicilian orange salad, so the juicy fruit leaks less. Add the orange pieces and finely chopped cilantro to the salad bowl and toss gently.

   

Serving

1. Dress the salad: mix olive oil with a few drops of lemon juice and whisk well with a fork. Put the salad into small serving bowls and, without mixing, pour the dressing over it.

   

   The appetizer doesn’t need chilling; it’s at its tastiest and most fragrant at room temperature.

   As an alternative, you can add grapefruit, pineapple or tangerine segments to the salad. Almonds need to be peeled and toasted in a dry pan; peanuts just need toasting. It’s very tasty if the olives are stuffed with pepper or lemon, which gives a special flavor. Instead of lemon juice, you can use lime juice or ordinary wine vinegar in the dressing.