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Sunday, December 4, 2011

Winter White

The care and feeding (of us, that is) of the CSA box continues, on a slightly more ambitious level.

White salads seem to have become all the rage at restaurants in Anchorage.  The problem is that most of them have heavy, gloppy dressings that obliterate the delicate flavors of the root vegetables in them.  It's a perfect salad for winter, but the balance of ingredients is generally off.

I happen to love root veg, although I almost never eat them raw except for fennel.  This salad has the chic white salad look with a light vinaigrette.  If you have a mandoline, I highly recommend using that for the shaved vegetables.  I used a great little Kuhn Rikon peeler, which worked  except that I kept nicking my fingers.  Perhaps I was suffering for my food.


The dressing on this is a bit sweet;  at the end, I recommend a variation for a tangier vinaigrette.  I served this with a spicy lemon shrimp, which made a great light meal.



Shaved White Salad
Adapted from Bon Appetit Magazine, November 2011

4 tbsp. hazelnuts, chopped
1/4 cup fresh-squeezed orange juice (about one orange)
1 tbsp. fresh-squeezed lemon juice
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 fennel bulb, shaved
3 radishes, thinly shaved
1 turnip, thinly shaved
Kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper
2 tbsp. blue cheese crumbles

Roughly chop two tablespoons of the hazelnuts;  combine with the juices, salt, pepper and olive oil and set aside.



Toss the fennel with the vinaigrette using your hands, then add the radishes and toss again.  Add the shaved turnip, cheese and remaining two tablespoons whole hazelnuts and toss one last time. 


Variation:  This dressing is a bit sweet.  With the leftover root vegetable salad, I tossed it with a bit of baby red leaf lettuce leaves and some of the lemon-shallot vinaigrette from this post.  It lacks the elegant uniform white color, but it is zestier and in my opinion tastier.

23 comments:

  1. Hi, ur salad dressing is nice,i think fennel give nice taste.Thanks for buzzed.

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  2. hazelnut vinaigrette! Mmmmm... love it. bookmarked and buzzed!

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  3. Great idea! The Sous Chef just brought home some watermelon radishes from his garden...maybe we can use them in this!

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  4. The hazelnut vinaigrette is definitely the best way to add depth of flavor to this healthy salad. Delicious!

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  5. I like the name of this salad and the outcome blends perfectly well. You use radish to make salad? wow! sometimes I do that too.

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  6. I love when I come across a salad recipe that sings to me - I love my salad - but it gets harder in December. So here you are all merry and citrus bright with a salad I can dig into.

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  7. I think I would like my dressing to be sweet with root vegetables.

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  8. This light dressing seems to do justice to this delicate root veggie salad! Well done. :)

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  9. What a perfect salad for winter! Mmm!

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  10. Wow - this is a STUNNING salad! I love the winter white, the flavors and the textures of it! I apologize for not doing this before - but I'm your newest follower on Google Follower!

    BTW - how's the play going?

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  11. What a great salad! I love the dressing! It sounds so yummy!

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  12. I am loving this salad! I think too often I fall into the rut of cooked root veggies, but this is a nice change :)!

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  13. Me too, as much as I love the leafy veggies, I think I love root veggies even more. The crunchy texture and it's quite fulfilling. I'd enjoy this salad too!

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  14. What a delightful change from a green salad.

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  15. Oh, that looks lovely! I haven't seen any 'white' salads in Cayman yet but hopefully they'll crop up soon. I love root veggies so this would be something I could really get in to, I think. Lovely dressing! Love the tang :)

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  16. wow, that salad looks wonderful, there is nothing in it that I do not love and that dressing sounds perfect

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  17. Ooooo definitely trying a salad that included raw turnip! This is a perfect winter salad - all flavour and crisp textures - I think I will go for the lemon-shallot vinaigrette option. Love the sound of that! How did the play go?

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  18. A white salad sounds unique and delicious with so many out-of-the-norm flavors. I love how the shaved veggies look like flowers.

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  19. What a unique salad!!:) Love how you shaved the veggies; and they just added the beauty, not to mention the healthy calories to the salad :D

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  20. @Hester and Ann, thanks for asking about the play! It continues to go very well and nearly sold out again in its second weekend.

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  21. Love the sounds of this vinaigrette!

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