What's cooking

Succulent springtime salad

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There is beauty and simplicity in bounty. Consider both the vision and the vitamins of a stark, white platter with nothing but some nice, freshly grown vegetables on it.

Here’s my take on a spring salad, inspired by ingredients available at local farmers’ markets now. Add or take away at will. If you can find asparagus, snow or snap peas, feel free to add them, too. There is no hard and fast rule to this salad except finding the finest, freshest ingredients and putting them on display. Enjoy!  From my kitchen to yours.

Spring Salad
Serves 3-4

2 endives

2 heads of bibb lettuce

5 small multi-colored  carrots, ½ inch stem intact, peeled and quartered lengthwise

3 Easter, breakfast or red radishes, green stems still intact

½ small red onion, thinly sliced

12 haricots verts

½ cup shelled spring peas

4 hard boiled eggs, cut in half

2 tbsp. snipped chives

¼ cup mint leaves

¼ cup parsley leaves, rinsed and dried

1 ½ tbsp. white wine vinegar

½ tbsp. Dijon Mustard

Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper

¼ cup canola oil

Trim the endive stems. Thinly cut the endives crosswise from stem end working towards the tip. Stop halfway and then separate the light green spears from each other. You’ll have beautiful leaves as well as some crunchy white pieces.  Wrap in a damp paper towel and refrigerate to keep the white parts of the endive from oxidizing.

Next, separate the bibb lettuce leaves and make sure they are free of any dirt and grit.

Dunk the radishes in a few changes of ice water to remove any sand or grit from the stems.  Use a paper towel to rub off any dirt. Using a Japanese mandoline, thinly slice the radishes lengthwise to get the beautiful cross section of green, leafy stem and the pointy root end.  Store these in water with a few cubes of ice.

springtime salad, What's cooking, Danielle Rehfeld
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