Winter Root Salad Dressed with Citrus and Ginger
When roots are roasted, their delicate flavors of fruit and spice mellow as the sugars caramelize. Roots eaten raw, however, are an entirely different taste experience: each vegetable maintains the integrity of its textural crispness and bright flavor, and as one of our table-mates said, the result is like vegetable candy.
Winter Root Salad Dressed with Citrus and Ginger
Depending on the root vegetables hanging around in your fridge, you can change the proportions, substitute one for another, or throw in something entirely different. I’d imagine celeriac, rutabaga, and parsnips—even cabbage—would work beautifully.
Serves 6 as a side dish.
Ingredients:
2 Hakurei turnips
1 beet
5 small red radishes
1 Daikon radish
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
1 small apple
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest and juice of 1 orange
1 heaping teaspoon grated fresh ginger root
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
Directions:
- Combine the citrus juice, orange zest, ginger, and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl and stir. Set aside to allow the flavors to mingle while you prepare the vegetables.
- Wash the vegetables and peel the ones with tough skin.
- Thinly slice the radishes, carrot, turnips, beet, and apple. (We cheated and used a mandolin!)
- Use a vegetable peeler to shave the celery into thin strips.
- Combine all the vegetables except the beet (so the whole salad doesn’t turn pink yet!) and toss with the olive oil. Pour the citrus-ginger dressing over the salad and toss again.
- Place the salad in its serving dish and tuck the beet slices into the salad. It tastes best after marinating for about 30 minutes.