Eat this, look younger. No, really

This beetroot, pomegranate, blood orange & duck salad will help your skin stay firmer and look younger.

I love using fresh ingredients, and blood oranges are in season now. Salads with blood oranges taste amazing, and this salad is packed with superfoods.

This is the type of food to eat to look younger – really. Recent studies have shown pomegranate is the latest undiscovered super food for skin as it helps increase collagen production and even firms the skin. The benefits of beetroot are well documented and the nuts, olive oil and duck fat (if you choose to put that in) will all benefit your body.

This one has slow cooked duck, which you can cook yourself, or go to your local Chinese grocer and buy roasted and sliced thinly and throw it in. You can leave the duck out, and the salad is also gorgeous as the beetroot.

This is perfect for lunch with the girls this spring.

Ingredients:

1 blood orange, segmented

2 golden shallots, thinly sliced

Green lentil watercress (Or 1 red witlof,  if you prefer)

(¼ cup) roasted hazelnuts or almond slithers, coarsely chopped

 Bunch Roast beetroot

1 pomegranate

1 tsp olive oil

 Dressing: Good Quality cold pressed olive oil

If you are making the duck yourself:

2 garlic clove,

4 duck Marylands (about 1kg)

750 gm duck fat or goose fat, melted

Salt to taste

Method

• (Can be cooked the day before)
• Beetroot- Heat oven to 200C
• Place beetroot in a roasting pan wrapped in foil, and roast until tender (30 minutes). Set aside to cool slightly, then peel and halve beetroot and set aside. (Use plastic gloves as this is very messy).

• (The day before) For duck confit, combine salt  and garlic in a bowl, add duck, turn to coat, then place duck in a non-reactive ( plastic) container and refrigerate to season (8-10 hours).
• Preheat oven to 140C. Brush excess salt from duck and place in a baking dish to fit snugly in a single layer, pour over fat to submerge, then bake until duck is very tender (1½-2 hours). Remove duck from fat, transfer to a non-reactive dish, then strain fat over, ensuring duck is completely submerged, cover and refrigerate until required. Confit will keep refrigerated, completely submerged in fat, in an airtight container for 1 month.

• Heat an ovenproof frying pan over high heat, place a piece of baking paper in pan, add duck skin-side down and cook until golden (2-3 minutes). Turn, then transfer to oven and cook until warmed through (5-7 minutes).
• Coarsely shred meat (discard bone), combine with remaining ingredients and beetroot in a large bowl, drizzle over vinaigrette, toss salad ingredients, thinly slice orange, and combine and serve.