Grilled Turkey Salad with Orange, Celery Root, Olives and Cashews

Step-by-step recipe

1. Homemade turkey salad is quick and easy to make, but preparing the meat and celery 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. Also prepare the vegetables and a few toasted cashews or peanuts; almonds work too.
   
2. Rinse the meat and pat it 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. If you have a barbecue with hot coals, the grilled turkey will be especially fragrant. At home, a grill pan works great. Grill the strips of meat on both sides until cooked through and browned.
   
3. Let the meat cool to room temperature. Then cut it across the grain into cubes or thick strips, as you prefer. Boil the whole celery root in lightly salted water until tender, or roast it in the oven. Once it cools, peel it and cut into strips. Slice the sweet onion into rings or strips. Mix the meat, celery root and onion in a salad bowl. Salt lightly and add a pinch of oregano.
   
4. Stir and let it sit for a few minutes for the salt to dissolve. Separately, slice a chili pod into rings. Mexican salads are usually noticeably hot. I suggest making the turkey salad with chili, as much as you like. At the very least, add a pinch of dried chili. I add cashews toasted in a dry pan; they're delicious. Along with the nuts, add olives, preferably green pitted ones.
   
5. Peel a large juicy orange and separate it into segments. Cut 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.
   
6. Make the dressing: 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.
   
7. 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.